West Country Wanderings - Leominster

It's my birthday!  I gave myself a castle!

West Country Wanderings - Bristol

After being out in the Somerset Levels, I had a day in Bristol.  I came in on the Park and Ride bus, and got slightly turned around, but once I'd found the tourist info building and picked up a street map, it was full steam ahead.

Or sails?  Full... sails ahead?  I don't know, I can't boat.

West Country Wanderings - Cheddar and Wells

For my birthday this year, I did a little road trip...

Malham Cove

Some friends invited me on a day trip to Yorkshire - somewhere I'd never really been before!  We were walking a route to the famous Malham Cove, and I don't think there were many geological features we didn't come across on the way.  Plus we had gorgeously hot weather.  I wore shorts and a Tshirt the whole day!

Me and Janet

Winter Solstice 2018

Did my usual pilgrimage up to the top of Beacon Hill to watch the sun come up on the shortest day of the year.  It was just me and Craig this time, and its always a gamble as to what you're going to get in terms of visibility.  But I seem to be lucky more often than not, and it was another stunner.

Injury? What injury?!

I pulled a tendon in my foot at the end of August, at the worst possible time.  They take a notoriously long time to heal - a couple of months even if you're letting them rest properly, which I... did not.  I had no time for that so I resorted to a lot of sports tape and sensible shoes.  I had places to be...

Woodland Adventure Posse - Assemble!

It was autumn, it was warm, it was dry... I had a real need to go walk in some crunchy leaves.Since I'm trying to invite more friends to more things, I put out a message to see who might want to come with me, and thus the Woodland Adventure Posse was assembled!

Six people (including me).  Three dogs.  One wood full of crunchy leaves.  Let's go!

To be beside the seaside - North Norfolk Coastal Path part 3

We're back at the beach! Yaaaaay!

Cromer to Mundesley - 8 miles

To be beside the seaside - North Norfolk Coastal Path part 2

Holkham to Blakeney - 10.9 miles

After Holkham the next stop is Wells-next-the-Sea, which is a small town with more facilities.  It's a walk I've done before, along the beach, but this time we struck to the path properly and found ourselves wandering down wooded lanes, behind the tall dark pine trees that this stretch is known for.  On another breezy but still sunny day, the shade was nice, and we had company!  A relay race was taking place, beginning at Hunstanton and going all the way round to Great Yarmouth over the course of a day or two.  We kept moving over to let runners pass, each wielding their barcoded baton.  We emerged at the carpark for Wells Beach and followed the sea wall back into the town.  

John captains the clinkerbill boat, so called for the Viking-style rivets in its hull.

To be beside the seaside - North Norfolk Coastal Walk Part 1

My birthday falls in May, conveniently between two bank holidays, and with the weather getting warmer I'm wanting to be outdoors all the time.  My mum and I (occasionally accompanied by my dad and youngest sister) have been walking the North Norfolk Coastal Path between Hunstanton and Cromer.  We did stretches on it in May and September 2016, and this May did our final section.  It's not a massive walk - about 45 miles or so, but that combined with the incessant flatness of my home country it makes for a really manageable hike that's less about clocking up the miles and more about appreciating the scenery of one of the most beautiful places I know...

Although I admit I am heavily biased.

The dunes at Holkham

Stories from Summer

It's been a long summer this year, or at least it's felt long to me.  Lots has happened, good, bad, and somewhere in between, in a lot of different areas of life.  A strange season, and a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but that's life for you.  Things can't be peaceful all the time or we'd be bored and never grow at all.
In some ways it's been a struggle, but as always there's been time to regroup too.  To take time out, to spend time with the people I care about, and to be contemplative, which is something I'm finding more and more essential...

... and to watch seals.

Seals!!!

Small magic

My housemate tells me that this blog makes it sound like I live in a magical fairyland.  Of course this isn't true...  except sometimes it kind of is.  I'm getting adept at finding it now.  Magic doesn't come to you if you sit indoors and hope wistfully, you have to go hunt it down.  Be prepared to look more closely at ordinary things than perhaps you normally would.  Take this weekend for example, when I went back to Norfolk for the day.  It's not often I get to go back to my home county (although my parents aren't originally from the area I consider myself a Norfolk girl by adoption).  I went home for a birthday party, but that wasn't until the evening so I spent the rest of the day at Weird and Wonderful Wood, a small festival in Haughley, Suffolk, that celebrates all things wood, and the folk that make them.