Wells-next-the-sea

We left home at 6am to drive to Norfolk and got here in less than three hours, there was no traffic. It has been sunny with beautiful blue skies all day, although there was a nippy wind at the beach - in fact it was a cold wind. Many people were in strappy summer dresses, shorts, T shirts, and while I was fine in shorts I needed a fleece top plus I borrowed Gavin's light puffer jacket.

We walked from Holkham to Wells-next-the-sea, and it was very windy on the beach. I liked this scene with the one traditional sailing boat out at sea - traditional in the sense that it has a red sail. The Norfolk wherries started off with white sails but the sails were then coated in herring oil which effectively made them red. This was done to prevent the sail rotting due to UV exposure. Today they are dyed red. 

We had lunch in Wells at Bang in Wells, both of us had the crab salad which was delicious. We were going to walk home but I was feeling very tired after our early start this morning, plus I have had a very active week, so we caught the bus. While we were waiting for the bus we watched two women bikers getting on their huge Ducatti bikes and driving off. The one women was quite elderly - in fact she had no hair which I suspect was due to chemotherapy - and she was very frail and slight, how she managed to control that heavy bike was astonishing. We were so worried that it would fall over!

When we got back to the car we went off in search of poppy fields. In previous years we have found a few fields nearby, but this year we could not find any. We drove up and down the lanes but were unsuccessful. However the sea pinks are looking pretty (although not as good as the ones you see on the Cornish cliffs) - see extras. However we did find a field of phacelia. These purple fields are largely grown in Cornwall, but this is the only field I have ever seen around here and in Surrey. Instead of leaving their ploughed fields empty, farmers are growing these pretty purple flowers as a cover crop, because it acts as a green manure and also attracts the bees, so it's a win win situation.

Gavin had some minor chores to do here which he did this afternoon. We are having a quiet evening here tonight, and go back home tomorrow morning after breakfast. I am booked on a Tom Way workshop to photograph foxes (and hopefully cubs) from a sunken hide, for a few hours from late tomorrow afternoon so I need to get back for that. We will be there until about 9pm so I will get home late tomorrow night.

Luke and Meriel are coming here on Monday for the week, but are having a problem getting here and back due to train strikes and problems on the line to Cambridge - they are going to Cambridge to collect the car from Tommy. They now have to try and find another way of getting here.