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So we’re home and back to standard stuff. John has been out in the front garden shovelling and washing stones again, and I drifted around the house in an attempt to get things into some semblance of order. I also drifted round the garden a bit but couldn’t find the energy or wherewithal to do any gardening. Feeling a bit too deflated at being home and no longer on a lovely, relaxing holiday to want to get stuck in.

I hadn’t slept all that well last night – I either imagined it or could actually smell fumes emanating from the garage, over which our bedroom directly sits. I tossed and turned, developed a headache, my sinuses filled and I began to cough. Eventually, I resorted to sleeping in our old bedroom – that way, the psychosomatic or real symptoms, whichever they were, would be alleviated.

The poor night’s slumber resulted in me oversleeping this morning and I was awoken by the front doorbell ringing. It was the neighbour, calling in to ask me to open the side gate to let the arborist into the back garden. He’d been called in to tidy up the trees that straddle our border. She was very apologetic for getting me up, but really, I didn’t mind.

Thereafter, it’s been a long line of chores today really – put the washing on, tumble it dry, fold it up, put some of it away, put the rest into an ‘ironing pile’; and then, in between times, clean and tidy bits of the house that I’d left in a horrible muddle before we went away, unpack the remaining bags and stash them away, pay a few bills, do the on-line shopping and so on. Nothing to see here.

The days was enlivened, however, by the cricket. England won the toss and opted to bat. Great move we all thought, including the Aussies, who would also have batted first if they’d won the toss. First men in, however, were very soon out, and we were no runs for two wickets. What a horrible start. The team did pull it round a bit and ended up with a respectable score of just over 300. And, when the Aussies stepped up to bat, they also had a horrible start and we thought it might be a good win for England in the end but, sadly, no. The Aussies scraped over the line and we lost the series after all. Very exciting cricket all round though, I have to say, so you don’t mind losing when it’s a close-run thing.

The day was also cheered on with a video call from the Sutton Sleaths and a nice little conversation with William, and a lovely few moments of cooing to Thomas. After much thought, we have finally decided to meet up with them in Sutton Park on Sunday to celebrate William’s birthday since we can’t meet in either of our gardens. Seems a bit mad to me, as I would have thought that the park poses a greater risk of infection (because there’ll be lots of unknown people around) than our back garden. But there we are. We have to follow the rules – even if they are a bit of an ass and a rather blunt instrument to crack a localised nut.

In other exciting news, I was upstairs paying my bills in the computer room when I heard a squeak. I stopped and listened. It stopped. A few minutes later, I heard it again – a bit more persistent this time. I paused and listened again. I couldn’t think where it was coming room, so I followed the sound. I finally traced it down in the kitchen. A baby squirrel, locked in Shadow’s growling jaws. Oh. Oh, dear.

Rio was looking on. Hmmm….. what to do? I gave Shadow a hard stare. To no avail of course. Shadow was in full control of the delightfully soft baby in his mouth. I shut the kitchen door and gave him another hard stare. He began to look a bit sheepish and, ever so slowly, released the squirrel from his grip.

The squirrel sat in the corner, shivering. Rio, bored, yawned and paced his way out of the kitchen. Shadow looked longingly at the squirrel but made no more attempt at catching it again. Instead, he started to miaow for food and stomped over the cupboard. Seizing my chance, I popped food into the cat’s bowls, shut the other kitchen door and scooped the squirrel up to deposit it outside. It shrieked extremely loudly, but the cats were eating their food and didn’t turn a hair.

I put the squirrel out in the front garden under the hedge. I didn’t really fancy it’s chances, to be honest. I thought it might die of shock, but it wasn’t badly mauled so it may survive – unless the cats decide to have another go, of course. We’ll probably find out in the morning.

As the day drew to a close, we were delighted to enjoy another quiz this evening. John was Quiz Master and was very helpful as we worked our way through some tricky questions, saying things like, “OK, move on!” when we’d got an answer right, or, “Well, you’ve haven’t actually said the answer yet…..” as we circled and circled possible solutions to seemingly insoluble questions. Great fun and great company as usual. Cheered me up and reminded me that being home isn’t all bad after all.

However, there have been nearly 4,000 people infected with the virus today and twenty people have died in the community and three in hospitals yesterday. Locally, the figure for Balsall Common still remains at three cases.

Keep smiling. It’ll be alright on the night.

Home. That was our destination today. We didn’t really want to go, damn it! The weather was so glorious that it seemed a shame to be simply packing our bags and then onto the road travelling. But, hey-ho, that’s what it had to be be. The late summer/early autumn idyll was at an end.

In keeping with not wanting to leave, I woke up early, felt grumpy and determinedly stayed in bed for another hour. However, I knew the inevitable must come, so I forced myself upright and into the day. And that was more or less it, then, for an hour or two – pack this, pack that, wash this, tidy that, unplug this and fold that.

Midway through the packing up proceedings, I prepped a brunch for us once John was up and about. Then, once we’d eaten, John asked what could he do? The trouble is, I am not a great or organised packer. So almost every bag was half-packed. So I was flustered then, trying to think what to get ready first so that he could get things packed into the car. In the end, one by one, the bags were filled and closed, then placed by the front door and John dutifully took them out to the car to find a suitable space to put them into.

And, finally, we were done. “Shall we go to the windmill, for one last cream tea, before we leave?” I wondered. John thought it sounded like a good idea and that it would be churlish not to. So that’s what we did. It was lovely to sit there in the sunshine with the ‘naughty but nice’ food in front of us. I shouldn’t have a cream tea because of my cholesterol levels, and John shouldn’t have it because it can unbalance his system. But we were on holiday still, so it was our ‘last hurrah’ before coming home to austerity.

“I’ll drive,” said John as we got up from the table to go. “For a bit, anyway. We’ll see how my eyes are.” Well, his eyes were pretty good. Not only did they see alright to be able to drive, but they behaved sufficiently well that he was able to drive all the way home. Good job.

It was tea-time when we got back and we were pleased to see that the house was still in one piece, and the cats were still prowling. They knew it was tea-time too. Had a scrap, with fur flying, to prove it. Same old routine – cats are hungry; Rio casts mean eyes at Shadow; Shadow shifts uncomfortably on his haunches and starts to back off; Rio pounces; both cats scream in anger and fur flies all over the place. There! That should do it. We’ve got the humans’ attention now, do you think they’ll feed us? We feed them. And they walk away, tails high – as smug as smug as smug that their fighting tactic worked – again.

So there we have it. Back to the old routine. After we’d fed the cats, we fed ourselves and watched a bit of TV. Too late to get the washing on, we thought. We’ll do it in the morning. Too late to unpack everything – we’ll do it in the morning. Yep, the old routine has kicked in – they die hard, you know, those old habits. It’s a ‘maybe tomorrow?’ scenario once again, folks. I expect ‘Worry’ and ‘Anxiety’ to appear stage left shortly.

Being on our holiday, in rural Norfolk and surrounded by not very many people, the pesky virus has not been at the forefront of my mind. Of course, now we are back in the Midlands where there is a high infection rate, it immediately raises its ugly little head. 3,105 people have been infected today (that’s still a lot, isn’t it?) and twenty-seven people have died in the community and seven in hospitals on Sunday. And there are between 3 and 9 cases here in the Balsall Common area if the app I’m using is accurate. So, what to do? Sell up and move to Mars, I reckon – or is it Venus?

Take care everyone – let’s try not to be a statistic this time around. God bless.

Woke up to the most glorious, wall-to-wall blue sky and sunshine this morning. Honestly, I can’t believe how lucky we’ve been with the weather on our week away. The most I’d been hoping for was no rain, but this amazing spell of good weather has made us both very happy. On our last full day here, what more could we have asked for? It’s been wonderful.

We’ve accepted by now that we’re not early risers, but we were up earlier than some of the other days. In fact, I got up early enough to roast a chicken before we set off this morning so that we could come back to something nice to eat rather than setting to on the cooking front at nearly seven o’clock at night.

Our plan was to have a beach day today, so we set off for Brancaster. We weren’t disappointed. The beach is a great stretch of sand, and the sea, being relatively shallow as it encroaches on the beach, was warm, having been heated up by the sun.

We strolled down onto the sand, and sat in its softness ready to people-watch. After a little while, we lay back, faces to the sky and eyes closed, listening to the birds wheeling in the sky. It was warm and very relaxing.

After a short while, I was conscious of the heat on our skin and thought we’d be better off taking a walk to the far end of the beach, to the inlet where a colony of seals play.

I know I am a soppy old thing, but I was so excited to see the seals. John, being a little more cynical, hadn’t expected to see any at all, so even he was delighted. The tide was out and seals were in a small pool carved into the river inlet by the meeting of the sea water and the river water draining from the land. They were just diving, then popping up again, looking surprised, which made me laugh. It was as if they were saying, “Hey, look!! People!! Let’s watch them and see what they do!”

As we watched, the tide turned and started to come in. Surprisingly, it rushed into the pool area with a fairly strong current, which the seals took full advantage of, by swimming out a bit then relaxing into the flow of water and taking the ride back – a bit like a water shute at a water park, only for seals not humans. It looked like great fun.

Soon, our parking time was nearly up, so we moved on, making our way back to the car. I paddled the whole way back, and John laboured over the sand. It’s not easy, walking in soft sand. But there was a reward beckoning.

Must be time for an ice cream? Well, yes. We are on holiday after all. And another cream tea? Yep. Let’s go in search of one. And do you know what? We haven’t had a Cromer crab sandwich yet….

We drove to Blakeney where we knew the hotel would have both a cream tea and a crab sandwich. We also knew that Blakeney’s a delightful place to be and just one of the best places to do a bit of crabbing. Not that we intended to do that, as we hadn’t got the kit or the kids with us, but to re-live our beautiful family holiday of last year.

We were disappointed, however. The hotel was only accepting pre-booked customers. Ah, well, the pub’ll have to do. Good pub, nice garden, excellent organisation on the COVID safety measures and delicious crab sandwiches. But no cream tea….. Not to worry, the crab sandwiches made up for lack of a scone and clotted cream.

We sauntered down to the promenade, where all the crabbing takes place, and I had to smile as we watched a new father get his bucket and crab-line out and prepare to drop the line down into the water. The baby was all of a couple of weeks old, but you know, a father’s got to show the child the ropes, at whatever age they are, hasn’t he? Great excuse for going crabbing, eh?

We had intended to walk on towards the sea, but fatigue overtook us and we opted for the return journey instead. There was a nice roast chicken to come back to after all. What a lovely day. Just all the right ingredients and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

In contrast to a blissful day in the Norfolk country/seaside, there seems to be discontent in the political scene. Nothing new about that, I know, but there’s a veritable mess that I think will have a horrible sting in the tail for us in the years to come.

Couple that with the pandemic and I’m beginning to think I could do with a permanent holiday in Norfolk….

And for the record, fewer than the last couple of days, but over 2,500 cases of COVID-19 infections in the last twenty-four hours and 9 deaths.

Let’s celebrate what we can, when we can – and keep our chins up, folks! God bless.

Things sometimes go bump in the night and you’re not sure what’s going on. Last night was one such night. Well, except that we knew exactly what was going on – the edge of the bed was too close, the floor was inviting, so John tumbled out of bed with a bump. The air was quite blue as I surfaced from my slumber, quite startled and quite concerned. “I’m alright,” he said, between expletives.

The thing is, the ol’ man is conscious that sometimes, in the middle of the night, he whacks me with a fist cos he thinks he’s defending my honour and in his dream I am the enemy, or he kicks me thinking he’s scoring a goal. So his conscious self tries to keep his distance. Only last night, the distance was a bit much and the floor met him coming up, as he went down.

No harm done though, much to our relief. Apart from pride, of course. But I like to think it’s because he’s looking after me.

Of course, night-time shenanigans means that we’re always knackered the next morning. And this morning was no different. We both woke up a bit bleary-eyed, wondering whether to get up and start our day. We did, of course, and John brought me cup of tea in bed which was lovely.

We had originally thought we’d go to the beach today but I was a little anxious, on account of it being a Sunday and the weather being absolutely gorgeous and …… there’d be a lot of people.

Catherine had told us that she rather liked The Old Vicarage Garden at East Ruscot, a good hour and ten minutes away. At first, I had thought we might not venture that far but, having been to Cromer already, I was game. “John, instead of the beach, where it’s likely to be very busy today, how about we visit the gardens today and do the beach tomorrow, when it might be quieter?” I said. “Good idea,” came the response.

The gardens opened at noon, which suited us well as we are now very slow-starters in the mornings. We aimed to set off at twelve-ish and be there 1.30-ish. Whereupon we surprised ourselves and pretty much made it to time, despite having to stop off at the garage to sort the tyre pressures out.

The gardens were a revelation. I love all that stuff, but generally speaking, John’s not that bothered normally. However, even he was interested. Stunning, for what is, after all, a private garden. I loved it. Felt totally inadequate regarding my own efforts but, as John said, “You just have to research it to know what plants to put in where.” Yes. If it were only that simple. The trouble is, I get muddled up and daunted……

We spent all afternoon there, marvelling at the owners’ lifelong work before imbibing a cuppa and indulging in yet another cream tea. I also indulged in a purchase and bought myself a rosemary plant, my own having snuffed it a few years ago.

We probably overstayed our time there because we both fell into the car tatered. But we were still on for a bit more sight-seeing before setting off back to our holiday home. We decided to take a look at the church and the lighthouse in Happisburgh, that we had spied from the The Old Vicarage Gardens.

Oh, the serendipity of visiting Happisburgh. It certainly was was a ‘happy stance’. Brilliant beach and pretty little hamlet. Exquisite Norman church and a lighthouse to boot. Oh, and ice cream. Can’t say fairer than that. And I had a paddle.

And then it was “Home, James, and don’t spare the horses!!”. We had a very good run back, with the sun lowering itself slowly in the sky, glittering through the trees and occasionally glaring at me wildly and directly in the eyes, then steadying itself into the most amazing orange orb just hovering on the skyline, before dying the sky pink.

Needless to say, we arrived home late and dined late. John keenly watched the Grand Prix he’d recorded as I cooked our meal. And what started as a likelihood of cars processing around an excellent circuit, it turned out to be very exciting with no less than two re-starts.

We’d no sooner got over that excitement than we plunged into viewing the cricket. We joined it just as Australia were in the ascendency and bound to win. The game, however, had a thrilling finish and England bowled the Aussies out to win the game. Good bowling? Yes? Poor batting? Maybe. Enjoyable though.

A great day. So, do we really want to know the COVID-19 figures? Hmmmm……I’ll say it very quietly…. shhh…. 3,330 people infected; 5 deaths in the community and 2 deaths in hospitals…. shhh….

Take care everyone. God bless.

Rather than go rushing about today, we took it easy. We spent the day close to our holiday home and mostly ate, drank, lounged, and watched TV.

We had bought punnets of strawberries and raspberries from a local roadside seller yesterday, so we feasted on those for our breakfast. Nectar in a bowl.

To be fair, breakfast, I say, but it was nearer lunchtime before we got up. Such a luxury to be able to stay in bed if you want to. Not to feel pressured into doing anything. To leave behind chores and the growing grass in the back garden. It feels like it’s doing us good just to ‘let go’.

It was soon time for the qualifying round of the Grand Prix however, and John’s thoughts turned to settling down on the sofa to watch it. John prepared drinks, and himself, ready for the thrill of qualifying. I decided I would rather go out into the countryside. The sunshine was beckoning and Catherine had pointed me in the direction of a circular walk. “Do you mind if I go for a walk, John?” I asked. “Not at all,” he said, ”I thought you might,” He’d clearly looked at weather too and knew I’d been hoping for a country walk. “I’ll stay and watch qualifying,” I smiled. “I thought you might.” I said.

I got ready for my walk and off I set. It was such a glorious afternoon and the path was easy, taking me first to the village pond – without geese, who’d been shipped off somewhere because they’d become a nuisance, but with ducks and swans. Then on to the ruined church, covered in ivy, and the graveyard overgrown with weeds and brambles. A listed building, allowed to fall into total disrepair, such a shame, but the grounds echoing the times gone by as I read the inscriptions on the gravestones.

I strode on, along the path past woods, fields full of crops yet to be gathered and fields shorn of their bounty. I watched the birds and animals in their own habitats before finding an oak log upon which to sit and savour the world. Food for the soul. Not bad this life, I thought. I had the time to sit and stare.

As I neared the village again, I popped into the local shop and bought a couple of scones. To go with the Jersey cream and blackberry jam we’d bought yesterday, you see. John was thrilled to be eating another cream tea. That’s the third one this week! We’ll be rolling home.

After such a busy day, we naturally ensconced ourselves in the sofa for a bit of TV watching this evening. But honestly, what rubbish Saturday night viewing is. I thought I might watch Britain’s Got Talent but after ten minutes I switched it off. John had already decided there was nothing on he’d like to watch so was laid out on the other sofa listening to his audio book. At least, that’s what he said he was doing but there was a bit of snoring going on….

Our evening was enlivened, however, with looking at pictures on our phones – first, views of their ‘garden-in-progress’ from Graham and Gail; then scenes of love and laughter from the family barbecue at Michael’s. An early birthday party before lockdown for William. We enjoyed dipping into a bit of life on the other side of the world and back in the Midlands. It’s not all doom and gloom after all.

It may not be all doom and gloom for now, but for some, there’s a shocking reality as they contract the COVID virus and, perchance, die from it. 9 deaths in the community by the new counting system today; 6 in hospital on Thursday and one yesterday; and over 3,500 people infected. The experts say it’s going to get worse. Which makes me miserable as we will be all looking over our shoulders all the time. Oh, dear, Lord preserve us.

Whatever we have to do, let’s do it with strength and hope. Take care everyone. God bless.

Our plan this morning was to get up early-ish and zip over to Holkham for a bit of a visit to the grounds of the Hall before making our way to Cromer. We didn’t get going very early though, so we just went to Cromer.

I have to confess to having been anxious about the trip. Even though the children are back in school, if Wells-Next-The-Sea was anything to go by, it was going to be busy. With people. And we’re not really doing people mingling. We’re still trying to avoid close contact with the ‘great unwashed‘. Just in case.

However, we went. It was busy. But we decided to at least take a walk to the pier. It was cloudy with the occasional break when the sun shone through, so it was pleasant enough but it was a bit windy. We strolled at a nice, leisurely pace down to the ‘front’ via the back roads so as to avoid the throng. We looked down on the pier. “Are we going down the steps?” we asked ourselves, knowing we’d have to walk back up again. Yes. So off we went.

Had a lovely walk along the pier but there were far too many people, so we found ourselves a nice little sheltered corner near a couple of sea anglers and sat there for a while, admiring their skill and nonchalance at their catches. People walked by but we were well back so felt safe enough. The sun was shining then and the wind was the other side and we were nice and cosy.

“Fancy a coffee?” says John. We looked at the tables in the bar area. All full. “Nah, we’ll give it a miss.” We walked on. A bit further down, there was the cafe. Tables were well distanced, and there were very few people sitting there. We stopped for a coffee. Someone had fish and chips. “They look good,” John commented. “Shall we have some?” I asked. “ Go on then, let’s treat ourselves,” John grinned. It’s not on either of our diet sheets but we’re on holiday after all. They were delicious – with curry sauce. Mmmmm…..

After we’d eaten, we carried on with a little walk further on towards the RNLI Museum which, to our disappointment was still closed. Never mind, I’ll have another paddle…… The beach was very sparsely populated and I had the waves to myself, apart from a small shoal of surfers just learning how to ride the waves. Bliss. Although, to be fair, the wind chill factor took the edge off just a bit!!

After that, we called it a day. We made our way through as many of the back roads as we could but, from where we’d ended up we had to walk through the town. We kept our masks on and our fingers crossed.

Once back at the house, we kicked off our shoes and sank into the sofa with a cuppa….aaahhhh…… that was nice. We didn’t sit long though, because it was time to ‘click and collect’ again in Swaffham. Successful trip with a fill-up of fuel, a purchase of our journey companions, Minstrels, and the pleasure of seeing yet another super sunset to boot. Grand, eh?

Not so grand though, was the WhatsApp conversation going on between the family members, revealing the horrible truth the we’re going to be in lockdown as of Tuesday. It’s William’s birthday celebrations next weekend – all planned, a barbecue, people coming from various parts of the country….. but not now….. can we bubble? Can we? Should we? Shall we? Oh, dear… here we go again. I don’t think I’m a happy bunny now!!

Talking of bunnies, we saw hares in the fields today. That was a bonus. I do love to see a hare racing across the field.

And, so, what can I say? 3,500 people infected with the virus today. The rate of infection doubling every seven days and predicted to increase over the next week or so. Hospital admissions up and death rates up.

We hope we’ve done all the right things to avoid infection while we’ve been on holiday. We thought we’d be bold and go out, but who knows? Fingers crossed.

Stay safe everyone and take care of yourselves for your own, and your loved one’s sakes.

Cool. A cool day in two ways: the breeze brought the temperature down to about sixteen degrees so we dressed up warm; and then we spent a thoroughly enjoyable day out and about – and it was cool!! Loved it!

Had a lie-in this morning. Woke up feeling a bit grumpy following a bad dream, so I turned over and went back to sleep for a bit. John says he thinks I woke up grumpy because I had too much pop last night. I couldn’t possibly comment.

However, once I was up (John had been up for hours) and had eaten my breakfast and faffed about a bit, it was time to get ready to visit the local windmill. I grabbed my walking shoes for the mooch along the path, only to be met by a pained look from John. “We’re walking?” he asked. “I thought we were going in the car so we could go straight on to our next port of call?” Oh. Abandoned my walking shoes and popped them back in the boot of the car. John had done enough walking yesterday and wasn’t ready for another trek just yet.

Once we arrived at the windmill we donned our masks, sanitised our hands and waited for our timed slot, then off we went. Fascinating history and interesting ‘gubbins’ inside. We made it to the very top and took ourselves a wobbly selfie there just to prove it, but it was very high up.

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Of course, while we were there we had to sustain ourselves with a cream tea too, didn’t we? The diet’s going well, then….

What next then? We decided to drive along to Holkham – I’d seen the signs for a beach there and, despite the fact that we’ve visited one or two seaside places, I hadn’t yet had a paddle.

All I can say is – we were thrilled with our trip to Holkham beach. John may not have been ready for a walk this morning but he was ready by this afternoon and we had a fabulous walk along the beach past the salt marshes and in amongst the pine trees. Not only that, but the sun was shining and the temperature must have risen by a couple of degrees, so we weren’t quite so chilly.

The tide was out so it was a good long walk to the sea itself, but it was a lovely paddling sea. John sat on his walking stick seat while I played in the sea. Oooh, it was fun!! And the water wasn’t that cold either.

Inspired by Catherine’s artwork on her conservatory walls, of shells and feathers and driftwood collected together to make stunning pieces, we collected a few shells from the seashore ourselves. Hands full, we searched in my bag for a suitable container, or containers, to hold our burgeoning collection. Found a pair of spare socks. That’ll do. A sock each. Great. We were concentrating hard on scouring the sand, swinging our socks nonchalantly, when all of a sudden, we came across a couple that we know from our village. What!!?? They were as surprised and delighted as we were to meet up. Kate was so thrilled that she said “Come on, let’s have a photo to send to Rachel (her daughter), or she’ll never believe me when I tell her we met you!!” Photo duly taken, we set off on our separate ways, uplifted by the encounter.

We then took a circuitous drive back to our holiday home via Walsingham, where I’d once been on a pilgrimage with fellow members of church, and Little Snoring where we looked at a house for sale. As you do, when you’re on holiday.

Home again, we sat and had a cup of tea and, to my shame, I fell asleep for half an hour. John got the tea ready which I thought was very kind of him being as I was snoring my head off!

We watched TV this evening as is our wont, and enjoyed the TV film ‘Suffragette’ starring Helena Bonham-Carter and Meryl Streep, which reminded me what dreadful experiences women went through to get the vote. And shocked when I realised that it really is only a hundred years ago. Modern women in Britain have so much to be thankful for with regard to women’s rights. Not so very long ago we were still second class citizens.

If only we could collectively fully learn from history. I am wondering how much learning is going on right now in relation to how we behave in the face of this virus. We’re still spreading it quite well – nearly three thousand cases again today – but the acute phase of panic is over and people are forgetting just how serious it is. Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, of Cambridge University, was reminding us today that the older you are the more dangerous it is. So we do still need to take extra care.

In the meantime, peace be with you and all your loved ones.

It was a Victoria Sandwich, with black cherry jam and buttercream, wot done it guv!!!

I can resist anything but temptation….. and damn it! There was temptation again today!! Every. Single. Day. Did I have an excuse? Erm….. Can’t think of one….. could I make one up? No. The only actualite is that I am rather weak-willed. There we have it. A determination to improve my eating habits and… boom! Within a day all good intentions are lost and the spare tyre around my middle is made up of scones and Victoria Sandwich. Ah, well, I am on holiday after all.

Despite the fall from grace on the food front, we had a very good day. I rose early, breakfasted like a Queen on yesterday’s foraged blackberries and apple served with a little yoghurt, and pottered about until the ol’ man got up. He, too, was up early. And why? Because we’d booked to visit Houghton Hall where there would be an exhibition of sculptures by the celebrated Anish Kapoor.

We arrived there, spot-on time and the gatekeeper asked for our booking number. Could I find the darned thing? No. But no worries, “What’s your postcode, love?” and it was all sorted. We were ushered into our parking space, one of the first to arrive, having inadvertently jumped the queue earlier before the gates were even open. I did wonder why there were lots of cars cars parked up on both sides of the roads……

We chose to wander round the formal gardens first and, joy of joys, were thrilled to see a bed of dahlias, which made me think of Pete and Dawn and the times we’d visited Baddesley Clinton together. Although, unfortunately, by the time we got to the dahlia beds, it was, ‘I think I need the loo’ time, so it was a quick photo and off we dashed.

I have to say, my anxiety levels had been decreasing. However, there seemed to be a lot of people at Houghton Hall. Admittedly, the exhibition, bar a couple of pieces, was outside, so we were able to keep our distance. But the visit to the loos raised the anxiety level to full-on. I mean, they had bloomin’ hand-dryers, for a start, flailing every droplet they could find in every direction. I wasn’t so keen on that.

But we persevered, and I kept my fingers crossed and prayed. In the event, the crowds were well dispersed and we really didn’t get too close to anyone. And the sculptures were mind-boggling, so we enjoyed it and stopped thinking about the pesky virus.

Not only that, I was thrilled to have looked at, and admired (in a weird way), Henry Moore’s ‘Mother and Child’ sculpture and, of course, Anish Kapoor’s ‘Sky Mirror’ – loved that, but then, doesn’t everyone?? Especially as I was described as a ‘teenager’ when I was trying to take a selfie. Flattery, my dear, will get you everywhere!!

We did the full circuit, including, I might add, the ‘Ha Ha’ at the end of the lawn…… oh, dear, they do say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit….

It was all thought-provoking stuff. Although John kept saying, “Yeah, but you just need the right tools….” and “This one looks like he got half-way through and his sander gave up.” Always thinking of the practical, my husband!! He did rather like the sculpture entitled ‘Grace’ though…

The exhibition didn’t take as long to go round as we had thought and it was lunchtime when we were ready to leave. John was keen for a coffee, but I wasn’t keen to stay. The queue was long and I was getting anxious about being among too many people. But it transpired that he wasn’t really thinking about coffee – more, sort of, a scone… and jam…. and clotted cream. Once we’d established that, we set off back to our holiday home. Go to the windmill cafe? Or the local cafe?

We plumped on the local cafe which had just the one scone left. Hence the Victoria Sandwich for me.

Because we had more or less a whole afternoon ahead of us we decided to set off for Wells-Next-The-Sea. We didn’t know what to expect, but crikey!! If I was worried about crowds earlier….. it was rammed!!

To avoid too many people, we ended up driving to the far end of the harbour, parking there and catching the little train for the mile back into town. We walked along the harbour wall and back. And then, because the last return train had departed, we walked the full mile mile back to the car park. Now, this may not seem much to you, but for John, who is in a state of ‘where are my muscles?’ it was quite a tall order. But he made it. Only had to sit down once. I was was pretty proud of him.

And all the while, the sun shone and the weather was warm. Delightful.

We had hoped, this evening, to join in with our Quiz Night but technology evaded us and all I can say now is, ‘Happy Birthday, Linda!!’ and send hugs.

There are still an awful lot of people being infected with COVID-19 – nearly 2,500 today, so I continue to worry. However, we’re ‘following the science‘ and keeping our distance, hand washing/sanitising and wearing our masks. If the darned thing gets us, it will be despite our every effort to avoid it. Fingers crossed….

Keep at it, everyone!! God bless.

In anticipation of it being a beautiful day day, I got up early so that we could go to the seaside. Inland, the clouds were covering what should have been a blue sky, however, so I was disappointed. Never mind, I thought, we’ll carry on as planned and when John is up we’ll set off.

So, first up, I put my shoes on, grabbed a carrier bag to store the volumes of blackberries I was going to pick and set off for a walk along the path by the field. As I shut the gate, a neighbour was just coming out of his house, so I passed the time of day. Because we had seen a lovely old vintage car in his garage yesterday when the door was open, I mentioned it. I said we weren’t sure what the make was but it looked impressive. Pleased, he asked me if I’d like to have a look round it. Oooh, I should say so!! He opened up the garage and told me all about it. Honestly, it was lovely. And pristine. It turned out that it was just a little ‘roller’ he’d been polishing yesterday. I was not jealous, as you can imagine.

With a skip in my step, I was soon on my way. It was very mild, if overcast, and I was looking forward to collecting blackberries. I didn’t have to go far before I gathered the first lot, and then I slowly worked my way down until I thought I’d got enough. I do love a bit of foraging.

On the way back, I also picked two apples from a heavily-laden tree, to go with the blackberries. And back at the house, they stewed up beautifully. Ready for tomorrow’s breakfast.

John wasn’t up yet, so I popped along to the local shop for today’s breakfast supplies and bought a couple of newspapers as a treat. We have more or less given up buying newspapers these days, so it was quite nice to have the rustle of a newspaper in our hands.

John was up when I got back so we had our breakfast – made with the fresh eggs I’d just bought – and planned our trip. I decided against taking a packed lunch, and also decided against taking my sunglasses. It was overcast, after all.

We set off to Snettisham, a sea-side resort where John had spent a camping holiday as a child. As we approached, the clouds parted and the sun came out. And it stayed like that all day. Wish I’d brought my sunglasses…..

The stroll along the beach was lovely, and then we sat down for a rest, just watching the world go by. The sea glistened in the sunlight and the birds sang – as best they could being sea-birds – and we listened to the background noises of dogs barking, people chatting, the drone of a plane and the beep-beep-beep of a metal detector. No children that I could see or hear – all gone back to school.

We drove along a bit further to Heacham and did the same again. The sun was hot by now (25 degrees) and this time there was man with a kite instead of a metal detector. Fascinating to watch. Nevertheless, I lay back, put my hat over my eyes and dozed.

Next stop, Hunstanton for a cup of coffee, perhaps? Or so we thought. Despite the school holidays being over, the town seemed very busy. And we just didn’t find anywhere we fancied coming to a halt. So we kept driving along the coast road, round the back lanes, through the beautiful countryside until we found our way back to the house we’re staying in, and there we had a nice cuppa.

The sun was still shining so I took my crossword puzzle outside and sat on the bench. The puzzle was very hard, and it was very warm, I’ll just have a little lie down, I thought. The bench was quite comfy and I was lulled by the children playing next door. Had another doze, don’t you know?

When I woke up, I was starving. “What do you want for tea, John?” I asked. “It’s up to you,” he replied. “I’m not bothered.” Ah….. well, I rustled something up that suited us both anyway, before John went back to watching the cricket. Our rellies in Oz will be pleased. The Aussies won the last game of the series. Not such an exciting match this time, but we enjoyed it all the same.

And that was our day. A pleasant unfurling of good weather, pleasant company, the roof down on the car, and glorious views. I’ll take that thank you very much.

Once again, the numbers of virus infections are at nearly three thousand people today. And, as of Monday, no more than six people may gather together. Yikes! This thing might be like the Hundred Years War if we’re not careful!!

Keep washing your hands folks! God bless.

It lasted twenty-four hours. Just twenty-four hours before I buckled. The diet? Hmmm…. the diet. Started the diet yesterday. Felt saintly. But today we had cream tea and wine. The diet was off for today. I knew it wouldn’t last. Back on tomorrow? Maybe?

So, how did the fall from grace happen, then? It was like this, your honour……

We woke up, nicely refreshed, with our mission to go for a walk this morning in our minds. We ate our breakfast and, while John was soothing his poorly eyes, I did a bit more jigsaw. I don’t know how long it was that I’d been doing the jigsaw, but I was conscious that it was quite long time, when I heard a snore or two from the lounge. John had nodded off. Ah, well… I’ll do a bit more jigsaw then.

When John woke up, it was gone mid-day. “Let’s go for our walk,” we said. Good idea. Mind you, took me another half an hour to get our bits of kit ready….

The plan was to walk as far as the windmill if we could. Not far – only half a mile or so – but we took our time. Consulted the OS map first. Shall we take it with us? Nah…. we’ll set ourselves up on the Sat Nav on the phone if we need to know where we are.

It was a lovely walk along the path. Loads and loads of blackberries to pick (I’m going back with a bag!!) and lots of flora to wonder at. Not much fauna that we could see though.

Anyway, we arrived at the windmill. It dawned on us that we hadn’t had lunch. The cafe was serving such delicious-looking scones with clotted cream and jam. How could we resist? Masks on, standing well away from everyone and using the sanitiser available we braved it and stepped inside. We decided we’d have the scones. We ordered drinks as well and took everything to a table outside. It was lovely.

After we’d had our scones we wandered round the little garden and admired the flowers they’d planted and the animals grazing in their fields. The chickens in the little garden were very tame and followed us round. Cute.

A nice wander back home to the jigsaw and a glass of wine while the chicken was roasting for our tea. It wasn’t one of the ones that had followed us, honest!

In between times, we were following Freddie’s First Day at School on the WhatsApp group. Oh, dear. My heart was full and then overflowing. We saw him ready, first thing, in his uniform looking gorgeous and very excited/nervous. Then we saw him walking in through the school gates, getting his name badge and sanitising his hands. Then the handover to the teacher. And the kiss and wave goodbye. And finally, the excited exit at the end of the school day falling headlong into Mummy and Daddy’s arms. It was too much! Ah…. Freddie, love you so. Where did those baby/toddler years go?

This evening, we had another glass of wine each….. and then, there’s only a drop left, shall we finish the bottle? Be churlish not to, we thought. We’ll drink it while we watch a film, so we watched The Good Liar with Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen. I thought it was good fun and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Oh, and by the way. We finished the jigsaw! Just wondering what we’re going to do now…..

We did watch a bit of news today, too, and note that the country is going to hell in a handcart. The virus is spreading again, there’s shootings and stabbings and the negotiations on Brexit are all over the place. Eeeh, but it’s good to be British isn’t it?

Nevertheless, we are keeping our distance and feel comforted that the people of this part of Norfolk have clocked on to the safety precautions.

Take care and look after yourselves everyone. Let’s safeguard the future for our loved ones.