I must have been out on the marshes for at least 3 hours but I had no idea of time, I didn't care, it just did not matter.

They are absolutely everywhere. Amongst the pea-sticks, in the flaking bark on the vine branches, under drain covers, in the garden store, on garden ornaments and in all sorts of unexpected places within the house including the linen basket! There were hundreds of Ladybirds in and around The Old Bakery during the summer and now there are hundreds hibernating everywhere.
I was pruning a climbing rose bush when it suddenly started to rain Ladybirds on me. 20 or more cascaded on to my head, they had tucked themselves into the twists of the rose branches. I had to make some repairs to the windows in the annex and there was even one under a window stay.
Having taken to making our own preserves many of which are from foraged produce I am wondering if there is a recipe for Ladybird Jam. Now you see I couldn't help myself and I just broke away to tap into Google "Ladybird recipes"....11 million hits! Wow, pretty impressive until I drilled down to find most of them are to do with cakes in the shape of a ladybird. Then I got a little excited when I read a hit entitled "Ladybird cookery books" only to find that they are cookery books printed by the Ladybird publishers, you know the guys that did the Janet and John books.

This is Janet.
This is John.
See Janet cook.
See John help Janet cook.
Janet and John are cooking.
Five Ladybirds.
Five Ladybirds in a bowl.
Five Ladybirds trying to get out of the bowl.
See how the Ladybirds struggle.
John is boiling some water.
See how the water bubbles.
Janet is holding the bowl of Ladybirds.
See how Janet tips the bowl.....

But actually now I think about it were Janet and John from Ladybird books or was that Peter and Jane?

Anyhow, a bit of catch up about The Old Bakery. Whilst we are advertising the Cottage, and have already had our first booking (Yippee), there has been an extensive list of snagging items that I have had to put right. These vary from tiling in the kitchen to boarding up under the staircase. The most odd task was to create a method to prevent the bed's headboards from snapping. You see the walls in the cottage are at a devilish angle leaning outwards so much so that by the time the wall has reached the ceiling it has moved out from true by about 10 inches. The headboard for the bed relies on the fact that the board uses the wall as a support and as the wall is about 5 inches away from the headboard it leaves a very strong possibility that the supporting struts would snap if any weight was put upon them. I couldn't fix a batten onto the wall because under the thin scree of plaster it is totally flint and also these are two beds that come together as one to give a choice of bed configurations so the headboards would need to move with the beds. So my solution (as you can see) was to attach a kind of leg which I made from scrap wood, the ends of a baluster and two rubber door stops. All very Blue Peter I know but it does the job, holding the headboard firm when pushed against the wall but enabling the bed to be moved to a slightly different location with ease. I reckon I could be up for a British Design Award this year!

Everything we do we try to do on the cheap but without compromising the look of the place. This staircase was exposed underneath and as a result had a lot of rough wood and exposed sharp screws etc.
So we needed to block it in. I did this for just £15. I had to buy two pieces of white hardboard to cover the main gap but to hide the nails I used two bits of architrave from a load that I bought really cheaply at the auction last year. I bought about 20 strips plus another 30 strips of normal battens for a total of just £16. Well the two pieces of architrave that I ended up using as a trim here would have cost alone nearly £4 each.
The Auction has been closed for many months as a result of the auctioneer (and owner) being in an extremely serious road accident. We understand that he is now making a good recovery and that they hope to have the Auction rooms up and running by Easter. We wish James Beck well.
So Claire and I have had withdrawal symptoms as a result of losing our weekly 'fix' of the auction.
I have also used my 'bargain' architrave to create skirting boards in the cottage shower room and I still have loads left!



Last year, of course, we were not open for business until the summer but we still managed to get a large amount of bookings. Well more bookings have already started especially for the big Christmas spectacular at Thursford. However we have had to turn quite a lot of bookings down because they were for two couples and we have only got the one room. We tend to pass them onto our neighbour who also has a B&B but has several rooms. We do have a room which needs to be renovated with stud walls to be taken back down and an en-suite created. At the moment it is the worst room in the house, but it could be really good so I have asked my friendly builder to have a look and give me a rough cost. However I think I will probably have to earn the money this year to afford the work next year. I guess one step at a time eh!

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Last weekend I was given the choice of shopping with the family in Norwich or spending the day up on the marshes at Cley. EASY. It wasn't warm but the sun was bright (actually the night before I had to drive to Kings Lynn and on the way back the temperature dropped to -11c, brrrrr) and so off I plodded to Cley.
There are three really big bird hides there and I had them to myself for the best part of the day and it was bliss. The lakes immediately in front of the hides were frozen so there were few birds there but this meant I got to see the shyer birds like the Water Rail, a Snipe and what I think was a Dunlin. I sat in pleasant solitude, just Myself and my camera watching the world go by at a true slow Norfolk pace. Time was irrelevant and it is only now that I look back that I realise I must have been out on the marshes for at least 3 hours but I had no idea of time, I didn't care, it just did not matter.

Lapwing

The icy lakes slid under patches of snow and gleamed a blue hue reflecting the clarity of the sky above. The air was fresh and full of oxygen, clean oh so very very clean. I could see miles across the marshes to the hills that led to Sheringham and in the distance two Marsh Harriers (a male and a female) kept me entertained as they played in the sky, dive bombing each other with an intimacy normally more associated with spring.
The Marsh was quiet with just the Lapwings calling out as they flew across my view.

Every now and again the peace was interrupted by the slowly ever increasing raucous cries of hundreds upon hundreds of geese flying in from another spot on the marsh. These shows were simply spectacular with numbers of geese that I have never encountered before drifting at first in the distance like a swarm of wasps then as they got nearer and nearer their cries crescendoed into a cacophony that overwhelmed the entire area. The numbers really were astounding. So here are some photos from that day which I hope give some feel for the glorious marshlands of Norfolk's North coast.

Cley Windmill and Morston Church across the reed beds

A wall of Brent Geese

Dunlin

Wigeon on ice

Even more Brent Geese

Wigeon ducks and Gulls spooked by a Marsh Harrier

A Water Rail feeding on a large dead fish

More Wigeon flying in front of the three hides across the frozen lake

Just as I was about to leave I heard the distinct sound of another flock of geese approaching and I stood and watched this collection of geese fly over the brow of a hill. The area of sky that they occupied was just vast and I started to take photos catching the advance guard at first....

There are over 600 Geese in this photo, nearer 660 actually, which is incredible and then I zoomed out to the next photo.....

The first photo covers just the tip of this picture (approximately the first 20%) I have absolutely no idea how many geese there are in this picture but it is probably around 2,500 ~ 3,000 don't forget that there are still more on the left off camera! All of these geese flew in a massive spiral over a field as if they were all agreeing on a spot to land before finally descending on the ploughed field. It was an incredible sight, simply incredible.

So that is what I prefer to do against shopping... Anytime!

I'll end once again with another classic sunset taken this week just a few hundred yards down our street. This strange weather is really chucking up some superb sunsets. I LOVE IT!

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