Saturday 26th May 2018 – A Week with our Family and Planting for Summer

Our family have gone home, leaving us with happy memories. Our eldest son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons arrived Friday afternoon and wasting no time, we headed to the beach. In the evening two more members of our family arrived for the weekend. We started the weekend with a visit to the Crab and Lobster Festival and during the week we visited the Lifeboat House (twice), ate fish and chips on the pier, our eldest grandson enjoyed the wooden play area on Cromer’s promenade (twice), we had barbeques, built sandcastles on the beach (virtually every day), dug for buried treasure in the sand, paddled in the sea, went to the playground in Overstrand (several times!), ate lunch in the Cliff Top Cafes garden, took a trip to Holt Station on the Poppyland Railway, travelled on the bus (twice), visited the Car Boot Sale and even had time to sit in the garden! Our eldest son, who first visited this area in 1985, said he did not want to go home and now they are home, our eldest grandson has asked when he will be coming back. Says it all – three generations who all love visiting North Norfolk and enjoying the simple pleasures in life.

During the week, the weather was kind to us with plenty of sunshine, although the chill in the wind kept us for the most part in long trousers. It did not rain until Thursday evening, by which time our grandsons were in bed. Thursday was not a day for a visit to Cromer. The Antiques Roadshow was being filmed both on the Pier and the promenade. It was pretty chilly on Wednesday when we paid our second visit to the Lifeboat and the wooden play area in Cromer where preparations for the show were very much in evidence. Our daughter-in-law spotted the show’s presenter, Fiona Bruce, walking up from the promenade. We later heard she was staying in the village at the Sea Marge. On Thursday evening’s news, she reported the final set-up overnight on Wednesday had been hampered by the gale which was blowing. Really - a gale? Obviously, Fiona Bruce has not been to this part of the country when a gale is blowing!

Wednesday 28th May 2018 – Two Weeks Behind and Village Events

Everything and by that I mean, trees, flowers and shrubs, are a good two weeks behind this year. This is down to the prolonged cold wet winter and just when we thought we were heading into spring we were hit by the high winds and more rain. Despite this, Peter’s vegetable plot is looking good and promises to yield plenty of vegetables over the coming months. Currently we have a glut of radishes which we have been eating at lunch time with a sandwich or a mixed plate of fish, cheese, artichokes and olives. Both our apple trees have been invaded by blackfly, causing some of the leaves to curl. Today I sprayed the affected areas with a washing-up liquid solution which should kill these unwanted aphids. The bees have been busy on the raspberry canes and it is now possible to see fruits starting to swell. Our strawberry planter has plenty of bloom and when the fruits colour and sweeten, becoming attractive to the birds, I well net them. This does not always work; in the past the blackbirds have gone under the net! Today I thinned the shoots on one of our grape vines in the hope we will get some decent sized grapes this year, rather than the usual pea sized which we leave for the birds to enjoy.