January 16th - 31st 2019

Birthday Girl

Greenhouse Pepper

Poppy Appeal

At the beginning of November I compared the journey from Bucks, where we used to live, up to Norfolk when we first visited in 1985 to our recent drives. Despite the improvement in the roads and the construction of the M25 it takes us longer now which is basically down to volume of traffic. Despite my prime interest being in butterflies and not moths, I attended an interesting talk at the Gardening Club given by Greg Bond who is the Moth Officer of the Norfolk branch of the Butterfly Conservation. Following this, I added up the total number of species of butterflies we have seen this year in the immediate locality giving a total of eighteen, which I consider pretty good for a small area. With Peters and volunteer’s help, as well as placing collecting boxes in the shop, hotel etc., I completed my first year as Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal Organiser for Overstrand. When all the donations were collected, the total amount was an impressive £1,498.46. We went to the WWI exhibition in the Belfry Arts Centre, commemorating 100 years since the end of WWI and also attended the village tribute on the car park where poems were read, lives of villagers in the war recollected, a ‘Tommy’ illuminated and a beacon lit. Following this, the village took on a Christmas theme with a Christmas Market at the Garden Centre and Overstrand Together’s Christmas Bazaar, which this year stretched over five different locations.

World War I Exhibition

Christmas Morning

New Potatoes

At the beginning December we went to Aylsham Farmer’s Market and while I went to our WI’s Christmas lunch, Peter helped with a seal rescue on the beach. I started preparing food for Christmas by making a Dundee cake and a beef goulash, the latter for when family visit between Christmas and the New Year. I followed this by writing Christmas cards. During the month there were various events in the village ranging from Santa’s tour in his fishing boat, sing a longs in the Conservative Club and pub to a Soul Night at the Belfry Centre, while various clubs enjoyed seasonal lunches and dinners. As we neared the 25th, holiday homes started to fill up and the numbers seen out and about swelled. We spent a quiet Christmas, starting with a walk along the promenade and then Skyping our family. So as to make the most of the hours of daylight we ate our Christmas Lunch in the evening. With waves rolling over the ramp, we had concerns as to whether the Boxing Day swim would take place. However, those who intended to brave the waters where not to be thwarted, moving further west towards Cromer and around forty three plunged into the North Sea. Peter has posted his video on YouTube, while I posted a link to this on Facebook along with a selection of my photos. With Christmas over the end of the year fast approached but not before we enjoyed a visit from family. With the racks of lamb I cooked we were able to serve some of Peter’s new potatoes, grown in bags on the vegetable plot. On New Year’s Eve, Peter gave the lawns the last mow of the year while I planted some tomato seeds in the hope we may get an early crop in 2019!

Jostled Beach Huts and Scoured Beach

There was a forecast of strong northerly winds and a high tide for the eighth. The media warned of possible floods but good news for the village of Walcott, which is prone to flooding, the cleared drains took away the excess water and coastal homes remained dry. Overstrand’s beach huts jostled as the sea floated them away from their positions. Some huts were prone but only one broke into panels and those further east stayed put. I took photos, while Peter captured the scene with his videos, the first from the cliff top and a second from the promenade. The latter is available to watch on YouTube. The beach was stripped of sand but now the wind direction has changed the sand is rebuilding again. Also on the eighth, Overstrand Together held an Open Meeting for villagers. Feedback was given on the Christmas Bazaar and Santa’s tour of the village and the initial arrangements for the Open Gardens in July were discussed. Following on from the meeting, leaflets have been distributed to all homes in the village with details about Open Gardens and Funding Applications.

White Coated Pup

Glassy Sea

Vibrant Gorse

On the afternoon of Thursday the seventeenth we spotted our village Marine Medic’s car on the zigzag and decided to walk down to the beach to see if she needed any help. It was a hostile afternoon with strong winds blowing the sea up to the revetments. It was however, safe to walk behind the revetments. Marine Medic, Alison and her husband were on their way back after checking out a grey seal pup, still with its white coat, at the bottom of the cliffs. Alison told us the seal looked fine and she had spray marked it for observation. We said we would check to see if it was still there on Friday morning. It was and as I slowly approached to check if it had any wounds, it made it quite clear I should not get any closer, so I didn’t. Peter took a photo using zoom and we left it, advising others on the beach especially those with dogs, to take care, put dogs on leads and keep a safe distance. Later in the afternoon a fellow Shore Watcher reported a dog was trying to bite the pup and in turn the pup was trying to bite the dog. The Shore Watcher managed to restrain the dog while the seal escaped into the sea. Since then we have not seen it.

Most days have been grey and cold with white horses on the waves but the past three days, although still cold, have been frosty, bright and sunny. This afternoon the sea was glassy, we stopped to watch a boat passing before heading inland for a walk across the fields in the sunshine. This now brings me up to the twentieth, with more to catch up on next time.

Nearly the end of January and I am last catching up with what’s been going on in our lives this month. Last Tuesday we went to a Seal & Shore Watch meeting. This lasted three hours but was very productive. The group can now progress forward with, working on the application for full charity status, plans for a triage and stabilisation unit and further fundraising. Donations can be made towards the triage and stabilisation unit on Seal and Shore Watch’s Just Giving page plus there will be plenty of other fundraising activities over the coming year. On Thursday, Chairman Bob, Marine Medic Alison and myself, representing Shore Watchers, met for an interview with BBC Radio Norfolk’s Jack Jay at the Cliff Top Café. Alison, with her first hand and extensive knowledge of rescuing seals, did most of the talking while Bob provided information as to how the group plan for move forward and I gave a brief outline of the role of a Shore Watcher. The interview will be broadcast either this evening or next Monday sometime between 7p.m. and 10p.m. Jack Jay’s programme has recently provided good local publicity through his interviews with Keith Hobday, from The Belfry Centre for Music and Arts and Michelle Duddy of North Norfolk Beach Cleans.

I am in the final stages before I publish my next book, ‘Truths and Lies’. Publishing has been likened to giving birth. Well, if that is the case this has probably been one of the longest pregnancies on record! It’s not just a case of sitting down and writing which, as I have not suffered from writers block, is the most enjoyable part of the process. There follows several readings to pick out mistakes and make sure there is continuity before passing the manuscript onto the first proof reader. Mistakes corrected the book has undergone a second proof reading which in this case, some rewording was suggested. More corrections and rewording completed and I was ready to upload onto Amazon’s Kindle which since publishing my last book has merged with Amazon’s Createspace, taking over printing paperbacks. The process has changed with information to complete before even getting to upload the file but one change was for the better, no more tearing hair out as before with page numbering the uploaded file. So that was nice and easy and I was soon onto the cover but then I got cold feet and decided that instead of having the recommended two

January Beach

proof readers I would have three. Why? Well, just in case an error or two had slipped past the first two. So the manuscript is now in the hands of a third reader and after this I will order a paperback proof copy and read Truth and Lies one more time before I press the button and publish.

We have had some frosty sunny days followed now by grey skies, wind and showers. There was quite a bit of ice on the back roads on Wednesday. The main roads had been treated but the pavements remained a hazard so I took care walking from the car park to my hairdressers in Cromer. Walking on the beach, I could not resist taking a couple of photos of the sea looking almost inviting despite it being January and very cold. This was followed by the Coastguard putting out a warning for Sunday of high winds of up to 70 mph and highlighting the risks when walking on promenades at high tide. The winds built during Sunday and brought with it rain showers interspersed in the morning with sunny periods. There were deposits of sleet on our bedroom window this morning and although the wind has dropped there is still a stiff breeze making it feel very cold. Roll on spring!

Sun on the Groynes