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| Poppies in a wheat field |
On the 5th
July I bade farewell to Suffolk and headed about fifty miles north to
the small town of Wymondham (pronounced 'Windham') which lies about
ten miles to the south west of Norwich. My hosts were an ex-merchant
navy Chief Engineer and his partner, a herbalist. I was slightly
thrown to discover that they do not eat wheat-based foods, dairy or
much sugar so my poor, uncomplaining gastric system had to adjust
from the dairy-heavy diet of Old Hall, to a very different regime!
Luckily they did buy milk for me to have on my muesli and in my tea
but, after a couple of days I found I was quite happily drinking
herbal teas and found very little hardship in the rest of the diet as
it was all fresh produce from their vegetable gardens and
polytunnels.
Their land was about a
ten-minute walk from the house and I think they were hugely surprised
when I declined the offer of a bicycle and much preferred to walk! If
they'd ever seen my attempts to ride a bike they would have been
extremely relieved at my sensible decision! The weather was quite
changeable while I was there so, on one day, I was soaked to the skin
and had to have a hot shower and don winter-weight clothes to warm
up, and the next day I got sunburned because I stupidly forgot to
take my sunscreen to the field and the sun came out with a vengeance
whilst I was weeding the sweetcorn and beetroot beds. When the sun
was relentlessly out I was able to retreat to the relative shade of
the orchard in the afternoon and thin the apples and plums out so
that the branches wouldn't break as the fruit swelled. I also picked
gooseberries and redcurrants in the same area and enjoyed the change
from constant weeding.
My host is constructing
his own rather posh barn and makes his own floorboards and cladding
boards using a portable sawmill. Obviously there are quite a lot of
offcuts from this activity and these were cut into lengths and then
split prior to my stacking them on pallets in a new log pile – a
job I found strangely satisfying (as long as they all stacked
tidily!). We also baled some loose hay that had had to be put into
the large polytunnel as an emergency option when the baler broke down
(why do they always do that?) and rain was forecast. It was a very
similar model to the one we used to have but, luckily, four years
further down the line, it didn't have the catastrophic effect on my
well-being that the one at Canon Frome had (see much earlier blog
from June 2010).
On my days off I
determined to see as much of Norfolk as I could manage so
subsequently drove many miles around the county. Again, Norfolk
surprised me by being not altogether flat – it undulates rather
than rolls, and has many trees and a surprising number of hedges
given that it is a mainly arable county. This may also account for
the vast areas of ragwort that I saw on all ground that wasn't
cultivated! One of the worst areas was the military ground opposite
the Household Cavalry Training Camp at Bodney! Obviously, no-one cares that
ragwort is poisonous to livestock in a county where livestock is a
rarity. Apart from some large, outdoor pig rearing units on the
lighter, sandier soils, I saw very little in the way of farm animals.
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| Seals at Blakeney Point |
On one of my days off I
headed to the North Norfolk coast, specifically to
Wells-next-the-Sea, as I felt I should pay my respects to this other
Wells. I was surprised to find that it is not next-the-Sea at all as
this area has silted up whilst the eastern coast has eroded away, so
the sea was about a mile down a long dyke. There is still a harbour
at Wells as they keep a channel well-dredged and fishing boats still
unload their catches on the quay-side, so I had probably the freshest
haddock and chips I've ever tasted for lunch! The weather itself had
decided to mimic the east coast of Scotland and presented me with a
day of 'haar', so everywhere was shrouded in grey mist but there was
a cold breeze blowing too, so not really very pleasant. However, I
was determined to see the sea so I caught the little narrow-gauge
train from the town down to the beach – the sea was nearly as far
out as at Weston-super-Mare so I took a photo of the beach huts,
which must look quite picturesque on a sunny day, and walked quickly
back to the town and away. Determined to try and salvage something
from this less-than-satisfactory day off I booked myself a boat trip
to see the seals at Blakeney Point and that was well worth £10 –
the seals were wonderful! I did wonder what they make of all these
people coming to see them as there were at least five boats there at
the same time all chugging up and down as close in to shore as they
could get with people waving and pointing and taking lots of photos
(me included). I swear some of them were playing with us as they
would casually surface, wait for several people to notice them and
then gently sink beneath the waves before most people could click
their shutters! A great game!
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| Ely Cathedral |
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| Norfolk Lavender |
Finally, on my last day
in Norfolk, the good weather and I coincided on my day off, so I
drove to just south of Hunstanton to visit Norfolk Lavender. My
friend Karen and I had talked of taking off one day to visit it when
we were still cooped up in the Purchasing Office at Thales in Wells,
but we'd never done it and, in a way, I'm glad we didn't, because I
found it a huge disappointment. I had imagined that the old mill
building, where they are located, would be set amongst rolling
lavender fields stretching out to the horizon but, in truth, it is
located on the junction of two busy roads with a small lavender
'field' in front of it and the beginnings of a lavender heritage
garden alongside. Other than that, there is a 'fragrant garden',
which has hardy perennial beds and shrubberies with a nice bridge
over the river, a retail plant area, an expensive farm shop, an
indoor kiddies amusement park, a rare breeds farm park and a large
retail outlet selling all manner of expensive luxury items as well as
the Norfolk Lavender products and a restaurant – far too
commercialised for my taste, these days. The only good thing was that
the lavender was in full bloom and they didn't charge admission to
the garden!
I was all done and
dusted within thirty minutes so drove a bit further south towards
Kings Lynn to visit another English Heritage site, Castle Rising.
Castle Rising is one of the best preserved, large Norman castle keeps
and sits within some truly massive earthworks. Apparently, it was
never meant to be a defensive castle, but a statement of wealth and
privilege, but I, for one, would not have liked to try and enter
without an invitation! There are steps up into the keep with three
massive defendable doorways spaced at regular intervals so woe betide
if your visit was not honourable! Off the Great Hall was a good
example of a medieval kitchen, but I was amazed at how small it was,
tucked into one of the towers with an open hearth and smoke hole and
the remains of some sort of sink in one corner – how did they cater
for the vast amounts of food that were produced in those days? I
found myself looking for another kitchen area somewhere else, but
there wasn't one.
Having done the culture
for the day, I headed north again to Brancaster Beach, where I
finally got to paddle in the sea and watch people surfboarding and
kite flying. One guy was kite boarding near me on the beach and that
looked like a tricky sport. First of all he had to get the large kite
wing up into the air and stable enough so that it didn't pull him
over, whilst he located his wheeled board and somehow stepped on to
it. At some point he was going to be seriously off-balance so it was
amazing that he actually managed it at all. I did wonder if the fact
that I was taking photos of his struggles added to the problem!
Eventually, I gave up on the beach as the stiff breeze was whipping
the sand along at ankle level and when I lay down on my towel I got
covered in a fine layer that stuck to my sunscreen so that I
resembled fine grade sandpaper when I stood up!
Norfolk definitely has
a more utilitarian feel to it than Suffolk. It seems to have fewer
small, picturesque villages and, because there is little in the way
of building stone, many of the houses are red brick. Because I am not
a brick expert I couldn't tell, in a lot of cases, which were old
houses, so it all looked more modern than Suffolk. Near the north
coast around Hunstanton there is an outcrop of a dark brown sandstone
called Carrstone, which is used extensively in the houses and,
further along the coast, to the east, most of the houses are
constructed of what look like cobble stones but which, I think, are
uncut flint nodules.
On Saturday morning,
with thunder grumbling in the background, I headed south again, back
into Suffolk for my next two-week placement.
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| Brancaster Beach |
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