To see the dawn of a new day, to smell the clean air freshly brewed by the sea, to feel the dew newly formed as you brush against mother natures dress. There is nothing more promising in a day than when the sun rises over the brink, givng you a cheerful smile, a nod and a wink. For then you know, you really know, that you are alive and it feels very, very good.

Those of you that know me will know that I like taking photos of landscapes & stuff and I also have an interest in Ornithology. So moving to Norfolk has just been perfect. Our house is just 20 minutes from one of the most important coastal nature reserves in Britain at Cley, owned by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust it is the oldest of all the other Wildlife Trusts in the Country and Cley is its first reserve. The best time for birds is in the winter as thousands of migrating birds travel through here.
However the Summer still has great interest and the whole area around this district is just teeming with wildlife.

So here are some photos that I have taken. They are not 100% high standard (my camera lens is not of the power required to obtain that kind of finish) but to those birders out there I believe the photos are of some interest.

So as you look at this small collection of pictures and if you are interested in such things, or know someone who is, go to our website,  www.theoldbakerynorfolk.co.uk   and book yourself a holiday with us as we are now open for business.....

 

THE MARSH HARRIER, lives and hunts on the Cley Salt marshes, eating small birds, chicks and rodents etc. This one is just returning to its nest after being mobbed by some lapwings that were protecting their chicks.

 THE REED WARBLER, can be heard but not always seen as it hides low in the reeds, but every now and then they climb up a little higher clasping on to reeds blowing in the breeze. 

Below a Reed Warbler is feeding a caterpillar to two of its fledglings way down in the thicker undergrowth. These birds are well camouflaged.

SEDGE WARBLER

 THE SEDGE WARBLER is another noisy bird, singing away, always on the move it will flit away in a blink of an eyelid if it sees you. So the answer is not to go to it but wait until it comes to you. I know you will think I am obsessive but I took this photo at 6am, having woken at 5:30 one morning last week with the sun gushing in and unable to get back to sleep I nipped up to Cley and had the place to myself. A vast expanse of reeds, marsh and pebble beach, watching the Marsh Harriers high above and listening to the morning chorus of the birds was just bliss. Everyone should make a point of being alone with nature sometime in the year it feeds the soul!

REED BUNTING

RUSTIC BUNTING

The AVOCET

A delicate beautiful little bird, one that I had never seen before but at Cley they visit as a flock and wade through shallow pools for food on the salt marshes.

This EGRET was once a real rarity but over the last decade their numbers have really increased and they are found throughout the land, almost as common as Herons.

This is a Lapwing fledgling and I put this photo in as a reminder of the harsh reality out on that marsh. I took this picture from within a bird hide and just seconds later as I pointed my camera elsewhere a Stoat came out of the reeds and attacked this bird. The adult Lapwings were up in the air mobbing the creature ferociously but to no avail as within 20 seconds it had dragged the chick, which was easily twice the Stoats size , off into the reeds never to be seen again. My camera focusing was just too slow to keep up with the action and so all I have is this poignant photo of an unsuspecting  bird just seconds from its demise.

This is the Spoonbill, a real treat as it is labelled, in the bird book, as ENDANGERED. With its nearly 5' wingspan and long bill and legs it has a long elongated body in flight. An Avocet is feeding in the background.

Here an Egret sizes up a Spoonbill.

All around this part of the country wild flowers and meadows abound The Poppies are especially good. They seem to thrive in the Rapeseed fields and the field above also had a blue flowered plant growing amongst them creating an amazing mix of colours.

Below is a view of a field just full of Poppies, thousands and thousands of them....

Glorious!

A Great Spotted Woodpecker stores a nut into the side of a telegraph pole.

And with this abundance of flowers nuts & seeds comes further wild life, voles and moles and with those come the Owls.....

We saw this guy as me and my brother were driving along. We pulled up in time to see it devour this mouse or shrew. It sat in the light of the dusk just checking us out before finally flying off, giving me one last glance as it did so. Sorry for the picture quality, but it was getting dark!

So the day is done and as the birds feed on the salt marsh ponds and inlets the sun sets and in the darkness the Oystercatcher lets off its shrill call.

For me this really is the place to be.

FANTASTIC

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The real skill is to be able to clearly identify in monatary value just what something is worth to you. Nothing will assist you more in this task than a trip to the auction rooms........

In the middle of Fakenham,every Thursday, there is a thriving market and at the heart of that market there is a single storey building and standing on a small two step ladder within this building, centre stage, there is a guy encircled by an attentive crowd. I say centre stage advisedly as this place provides a live show every week with suspense, comedy, missed opportunities, tensions and surprises, in short this is James Beck auctions and myself and Claire both greatly enjoy turning up on auction day.

Each week people from around the area bring things that they no longer want and put them up for sale, not on EBay but straight forward, old fashioned, eye ball to eye ball bidding. The 'stuff' that appears in this auction is as varied as can be from a medieval Yoke to a brand new bathroom suite. We have seen Gongs, bikes, chicken houses, Daimler headlights, caravan toilets, French 17th Century chairs, computers, beautiful bureaus, photo albums, bibles, Chubba sweet dispensers and mansion gates. The prices have been from £700 plus for a Walnut marquetry in-laid chest of draws down to £1 for a vacuum cleaner that was still FULL of the previous owners dust!

I'd say that you never know what you are going to see at this showroom but I would be lying as each Tuesday they put up photos, on to the Internet, of everything that they have for sale that week.

Site address:       http://jamesbeckauctions.co.uk/index.html

This week they had the least stock that we had ever seen, but generally speaking the rooms are crammed full with stuff. It is a real Aladdin's cave (this is true as I have seen a lantern there before which looked like it could be magic) and we love browsing such an eclectic range of things.

As you may appreciate in setting up this house, which is well over two hundred and fifty years old (and being an ex-Bakery) we are looking out for items contemporary to the age of the building and so this auction is a great hunting field for such items.
Furthermore Claire is very into the current Craft movement resurgence and empowered by the Make Do And Mend mentality, finding genuinely old or well built items that have fallen on hard times and giving them a make over.
So she too has agendas when at the auction.


We have put our proverbial toes in the water and bid on items and, on occasions, have come away with what we believe was a real bargain. Our first dabble was a reasonably chunky one in that Claire has wanted a Dining table and chairs that she could attack with one of her craft ideas. She wanted something reasonable in size that she could paint and cover in really old black & white postcards of all the places that she had visited in the world that she had really enjoyed or meant something to her, a really great idea. So she saw this pine table and 4 oak seats and volunteered me to do her bidding. She set her top price at £40 and the bidding commenced. At this point I feel I should issue a Mikes health warning..... You really need to decide what that item is worth to you, what is the most that you feel is a price worth paying and set that strictly as your limit. It is really hard to make that decision on the hoof, as it were, and you can get sucked into paying what your heart tells you not what your head says.

So I waved at the auctioneer, he indicated back and the bids drifted between three or so people, then as they dropped out at £25 or £30 there was just two of us, £38 to the other bidder, the auctioneer glanced at me asking £40? I nodded in agreement he then flicked back to the other bidder, there was a silence of hesitation and then looking around the room to check that there were no other bidders he tapped the back of his old scruffy hardboard clipboard with his Biro as a signal that the deal was done, finally he asked for my name to record the sale.
Claire could not see who had won the sale as it was all done with nods and eye contact, so she only really knew I had got it when he asked for my name.

Claire has subsequently done her 'craft' magic on this item and I think it is a brilliant idea...

The table part-painted and Claire organising the postcards

The finished job

We christened the table by having an old fashioned afternoon tea, on the lawn, in celebration on the day of the Royal Wedding, (and in honour of  Pippa Middleton, of whom all the gentlemen of the party considered her to be the champion fillie of the day).

And so as the weeks passed on and Spring became Summer we carried on attending the auction, going on afterwards to the market out-side where we buy all our vegetables each week (far cheaper tan Morrisons) and then we buy other good food at the market before going on to Morrisons to buy anything that we can't get from other local traders.

For sometime Alison and I have been debating what chairs we should have in the guest bedroom. Both of us had a specific type of chair in mind, me a pair of small armchairs and Alison Ikea style tub seats but one thing consistently caused concern, the width of the corridor leading to the bedroom. No chair, other than flat pack, would ever get into the room unless they went through a window (first floor). However one day at the auction I saw my perfect armchairs, smaller than the full size ones but still easily larger enough for me to sit in quite comfortably AND they would fit in through the windows! Bidding started a £20, no takers, then dropped to £10, still no one bid and so I thought I had better start of the process and just as I was about to bid he dropped the initial bid to £5. I signalled to him, he then tried to find another bidder but no one else wanted them and so the pen slammed against the clipboard and the chairs were mine at jut £2.50 each! They need recovering but Alison reckon she could do it herself with simple cover fairly cheaply, what a bargain!

We have subsequently bought the following:-

£20 for Claire

The posh sink in the middle is really nice and cost me £26, easily worth £80 ~ £100.  The Two sinks on the floor I managed to obtain for just £5 the pair! They are in pristine condition and the equivalent in B&Q are £130 each compared to my £2.50 each. And Yes, I do have a place for each of these to be fitted.  MY BUY OF THE YEAR!

Old Brass Scale as used in years past to weigh bags of flour etc, bought for just £12 and the same item seen in a local Antiques shop for £30 (without the hooks). 

£52 for the Office. Whilst this seems expensive these are really good quality and Brand New.

And so you see that we are hooked by the bug and inevitably we play the guess how much this or that will go for game. Generally speaking I am not far of the mark, but Claire is pretty spot on. Last week there was a very large dining table stained heavily red and 6 leather seated chairs. I said to Claire that I thought it was worth £600 and that it would go for £300~£400. She poo pooed this saying that it was hideous and that it would only fetch £50 at best. Well it was at least 6' long and 3' wide and the chairs were excellent. Then the bidding started and low & behold £40 (I think), I would have lost £400 on the deal if I had bought it! (Which I wouldn't have done, 'cause in all fairness it really was hideous). The next week the table re-appeared minus the 6 really nice chairs, clearly a shrewd dealer bought it for the chairs. This time the thing sold for just £20.

This week we also put some items in the sale and I will tell you more of this experience in a few days time..........

"I believe the real difference between success and failure in a corporation can be very often traced to the question of how well the organization brings out the great energies and talents of its people." — Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

For many years now I have been on the receiving end of Mike's teasing, most of which is either funny or exasperating but always entertaining. A fortunate by-product of having children was that his attention was diverted onto them as it was far easier to wind them up when they were younger. But as they went off to university and their adult lives, the focus of his teasing returned to me.(I'm not sure that having B&B guests around will be as effective a diversionary tactic as having children).

During those intervening years I had resumed my career and along the way, as a result of my love of reading and learning, have accumulated over one hundred books on leadership and management. I lend these out to those that are similarly interested (and thereby achieved my childhood ambition of being a librarian!). The management sections of bookshops is always the place where I start and my management books were amongst the first things to be unpacked when we moved last year.

Most of the time this teasing washes over me but there are a few subjects that are guaranteed to get me to respond and sucked into a debate. Discussions on my management books is one but I'm certainly not going to highlight what the others are. A couple of years ago Mike had to attend a two day management and leadership course. He came home after the first day and promptly declared that 'all this management stuff is *********" and although I knew he was only winding me up, I nevertheless got drawn into a heated discussion. The next evening after the conclusion of the course (and with an apologetic bunch of flowers in hand) he had to admit that he had learnt some useful things and that he had been wrong.

Just last week he asked me just how bad a manager I would be if I didn't have one hundred management books to refer to (the answer he got was that I'd just be average rather than excellent!!!)

I'm a great advocate of people using their strengths at work and the quote above suggests that businesses will only be successful if the people in the business are using their strengths. For the last six months Mike has been busy day by day getting our B&B business ready to open; we are now in a position to accept guests and we had our first official booking yesterday :-). And as you will know he has been documenting the progress of our B&B via this blog and in doing so has demonstrated a hitherto unseen talent for writing.

But years of experience in management have clearly had an impact on him too, so much so that unbeknown to me, he has been writing a second blog; his very own take on management and leadership. You can find the blog at www.grassrootmanager.blogspot.com

Irritatingly, amongst the humour and poking of fun, there are some genuinely sound theories in there. (I must have had some influence on him after all).

But I'm glad that after years of hard labour and extremely long hours, he is finally getting the opportunity to release the talents he has, whether that be charming our B&B guests, writing blogs and most importantly pursuing his love of photography.

There won't be many times in this blog that I get to quote my favourite author of management books but here he is:


"Great management is not about changing people.  Great managers take people as is and then focus on releasing their talents.
- Marcus Buckingham

I take the photos and everyone else has to look at them.It isn't fair but hey, what is in this mad, mad world.

TA - DAAAAAAAA......

And so it FINALLY came to pass that the Bathroom was finished.  Well there is still the towel rail, oh and the toilet roll holder, but apart from all that ('cause there's always something isn't there?) the bathroom has been put back together again, Hooraar!
It has only taken about two months, or so. I have honestly never had so many problems from one little room. And it just so happens that this actually was the 'little room'.

So now you have to see the photos. I know, I know, why should you have to suffer? Well I'm afraid that is the way my world works, I take the photos and everyone else has to look at them.It isn't fair but hey, what is in this mad, mad world.

So you've got the before, during and after and whilst you look at them be mindful of every flint that resisted me, of the floor that dropped 4" in just four foot, the football size holes in the wall and the floorboards from hell....

 

Having said all that, actually....   I really enjoyed the challenge.

What's next?

Now I start on the hall just outside the guest suite as it looks like it has not been painted since John Travolta put on his white suit and Edward Heath was flashing his white teeth at us.

Then....

We start on the annex, which is another Blog, another day. 

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But who wants to be foretold the weather? It is bad enough when it comes, without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand. .............Jerome K Jerome (Three Men In A Boat)

The weather man tonight (I know his name but I have no wish to publish it here and pander to his lust for more fame than he deserves) used the following sentence in his forecast tonight....

"Good evening, a couple of areas of rather obdurate cloud today but the majority enjoyed a sunny 2nd of June"

Two things:-

1. We enjoyed that sunny 2nd of June with not a cloud in the sky.

and

2. Really? "Obdurate", is it only myself that has never used this word in any day to day sentence? Well if I am honest that is because I had never heard it before and I had to look it up. I am sure all my acquaintances out there will say that I am a complete philistine for my lack of knowledge of this word.
      Just to digress for one moment, the word philistine reminds me of a classic comment by a work colleague many, many moons ago. He was a very arrogant know it all and liked to try to belittle people at every opportunity. On this particular incident he was arguing a point with someone and clearly had no knowledge of the subject what so ever, however this rarely dissuaded him from voicing an opinion. Frustrated at the guys ignorance the person he was arguing with said to him..
"You know what you are? You're a philistine, that's what you are!"
Seizing the opportunity to show his accuser up as simply being incorrect he replied immediately,
"Well then, that shows what you know then doesn't it because I'm actually a Sagittarius, so there!"

It's stupid but it always makes me smirk when I remember it.

So "Obdurate". Do I think the weatherman is a natural wordsmith for whom the joys of predicting and notifying us of the days meteorological possibilities is only an outlet for his poetic parlance (much as my blog is for me!), or...
do I think he had a bet with a mate down the Pub that he had to slip the word Obdurate into the report.

I'm going to watch this guy like a hawk to see if any further extraneous words make an appearance such as "Iceland's eructation has added a sense of gloom to the overcast skies of the Shetlands" or such like....

I'M WATCHING MR DEAKIN,      I AM WATCHING AND LISTENING......

Still, however pretentious I may think the word may be all I know for sure is that if I have the first seven letters sitting on my Scrabble rack and there is an available 'E' in the right position on the board I've got a potential score of 42, which may not seem to be very much (especially as it would have to sit on a triple word score) but I would also get the 50 point bonus for using all my letters thus achieving 92 points in total and with the further bonus that my fellow players will be utterly stunned that I might even know such a word.
 In short I would be obdurate in my bragging.


BACK TO THE BLOG

We have agreed contracts with local tradesmen regarding the refurbishment of the Annex to this property which we intend to renovate and rent out as either a holiday cottage or a short term let. The first to arrive will be the plumber who will take all the plumbing right back to the source stop-cock. Then the Electrician will kill all the power, except basic requirements, and finally the builders will come in and knock the place into shape. Then the electrician and plumber will return (hopefully) to reinstate their relevant services and then I will have to start all over again by building the kitchen and bathroom and redecorating the whole thing, whilst (again hopefully) attending to B&B guests.All this starts in less than two weeks time!

On my next blog I will add some photos of this annex to show you what we are up against. It is a challenge, not a "Grand Design" scale challenge but for the budget it will test our resolve somewhat.

On a positive note I am very, very close to finishing the en-suite bathroom and I will show those photos, too, fairly soon.






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Sue, this one is for you......................................... " I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself." ................... Marlene Dietrich

The Old Bakery sits in the centre of two very different worlds. One overwhelmingly tranquil and seemingly of little consequence in the bigger picture of life. The other of War and power which by cause and effect directly influences that bigger picture.....

With the former I talk of a small nest box, one of a couple given to me as a present, which I clambered up a ladder and carefully positioned high on the wall of the Annex. within a couple of weeks myself and Claire noticed a pair of Blue Tits checking it out and then over the next few weeks they could be seen clearly bringing nesting materials in. We now had our first set of lodgers. We went on with our lives, as did they, and as the early cherry blossom fell it was exasperated by the Tits plucking more off the tree to use as nesting material.

Across on the other side of the garden a Black bird had set up a nest in a pile of pea sticks. She had laid 4 speckled light blue eggs and she was crammed into her nest with her tail poking up into the sky as it simply would not fit into the nest as well. I had to stop mowing in the immediate area as her nest was only 3 foot off the ground and I had no wish to disturb her. However rather sadly something must have spooked her and only a couple of weeks later she had abandoned both the nest and the tiny fragile brood of eggs that lay within it. Not long after the eggs were found by some wild creature and cracked opened and consumed.

So it was with a sense of contentment when this disappointment was counteracted by the noise of squealing little Blue Tit chicks emanating from our bird box. Now the parents activity really stepped up as they took it in turns to shoot out of the nest box (like a Cuckoo clock on steroids) and off over the hedge returning within the minute carrying a juicy fat bug (see the Wednesday, 18 May 2011 Blog). This was either transferred to the other parent at the entrance to the box or directly into the nest box to a starving, bleating chick trying to persuade the giver with a chirpy "ME, ME, ME, ME, ME......

As each day passed the chicks became more noisy and the parents more active and subsequently less preened and hence more scruffy. Again it seemed like only a couple of weeks passed by before I became aware of a frenzy of activity & noisy chirping was echoing from our cherry trees in the garden. As I went to investigate the cacophony I felt a passing blow to my head and upon glancing up I found that a faltering Blue Tit chick had collided with my head on route to a low manageable branch of a shrub just above me.
 

Photo taken by Claire

These little fledglings are sustained by their parents undying devotion and self sacrifice as they too fly many sorties to and fro delivering grubs and food to their children. Just look at how unkempt the parent appears compared with the chick. It's body weight has dropped and it cannot have preened itself for the duration, the poor thing looks fit to drop and yet it's frenzied food delivery service goes on and on.
A few days back we found two Long Tailed Tit chicks dead in our front yard. It looks like they had fallen from a nest in our Wisteria and the parents simply could not help them. It's a tough old world out there and not quite as sublime as it appears on the face of things.






The latter of the two worlds rip through the Norfolk skies unzipping the air with their dual Rolls~Royce Jet engines. The Tornado Jet fighters are very lean, mean killing machines and fly occasional training sorties over us alternating with the deadly journeys South to bomb Tripoli.

The two worlds are in complete juxtaposition and the strange thing is that Claire and I are fascinated by both of them. Each time the fluffy little ball of Blue Tit fledglings come out of the nest to play we are out there to watch and photograph them and then, with the same verve and enthusiasm we both rush out if we hear the slightest roar of a jet fighter to see this fantastic plane fly overhead. Today there was a single Tornado practising dropping rapidly from a great height, pulling up quite low to the ground and then at full thrust shooting like a rocket straight back up, quite vertical, into the blue sky.

I am sure you won't believe this but last week I heard two Tornado's screech above my house, I was upstairs and so I threw the window open only to see them really low down and curving off into the distance. As I watched them I heard the roar of a third plane which seemed to be landing on my very roof. I turned my head into an impossible angle and looked straight up at my house roof in anticipation when all of a sudden this Tornado appeared, right above my head, at such an angle that I could clearly see the pilot and as I looked at him he appeared to be gazing right back at me. I swear that if he had not had his helmet on I could have identified the guy in a police line up, that was how low he was. And in an instant he was gone again.

I bet those guys just love doing that stuff.





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