We see astounding bluebells at Foxley Wood and stock up on culture for May

There was rain here overnight and this morning, plus strong winds that

Bluebells and bracken curls at
Foxley Wood 

made the taking down of our awning quite entertaining. We only nearly had it blow away once! Both the zips on one of the doors are completely knackered though so I spent an hour or so yesterday evening sewing the door panels closed on one side. The rest of it is ok, so we still have three more doors to wear out before we will have to splash out on a new one. Hopefully it will last until summer's end because I have a theory that new ones will be discounted more significantly in September.

Yesterday morning was bright and sunny so we cycled out from our campsite on a pretty route, devised by Dave, which took in several local villages, a short stretch of National Cycle Route 1 and finished up by returning along The Marriott's Way practically to our gate. This photograph shows a view of our campsite, The Siding, from The Marriott's Way just at the point where we left it. Chatting to owner Tim a couple of days ago, we were both interested to learn that his father had been the Station Master here in the 1960s before the Beeching cuts closed the line. Tim can remember exactly how the station used to be and it sounded like it had taken a lot of work - and hardcore - to transform The Siding into the beautiful place it now is.

The Siding from The Marriott's Way 

I finally got around to taking a couple of nice photographs of rape fields yesterday. There are so many around here that are in full flower at the moment that I think those bright yellow expanses will be my abiding memory of North Norfolk.

Beautiful yellow rape flowers in North Norfolk 

Lunch over, we decided to visit another of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust nature reserves, this one being the closest to us and very different from Hickling Broad. Foxley Wood is an ancient - 6000 year old - deciduous woodland that covers 123 hectares. There are small car parks off the entrance road, but it looked like everyone else had chosen yesterday to visit as well because we had to join lots of other cars out on the roadside. Once parked up, several paths lead around so the site wasn't crowded and we were able to appreciate our peaceful environment.

Bluebells are the main attraction at this time year and the carpets between the trees are unbelievably beautiful, almost ethereal. There is a delicate aroma in the air too and butterflies attracted to the flowers. This cabbage white stooped to drink nectar close enough to my camera. We also saw tortoiseshells, peacocks and orange tips.

Cabbage white butterfly on a bluebell 

We could hear birdsong almost continuously, but didn't see any birds closely enough to identify them. Several different flowers caught our eyes though including swathes of yellow celandine, white wood anemones and these gorgeous purple plants which look like a type of hyacinth to me but I haven't identified them yet.

The bracken curls pictured at the very beginning of this post gave the area a primordial feel. I think I know that they are one of the earliest plants? Triffids sprang to my mind and we joked that they might suddenly uncurl to grab us!

We are moving on again on Thursday. A few days exploring Lincoln will be followed by the rest of May in Hope in the Peak District. Hope-related puns will probably be mostly directed at the weather because Dave has printed lots of pages of Ordnance Survey walking maps from his special software. We have also lined ourselves up with no less than three cultural nights one - a play and two Americana gigs. NTlive emailed about their next broadcast which is Ralph Fiennes in Man And Superman by George Bernard Shaw. Coincidentally, we recently saw him in a very different role when we watched The Grand Budapest Hotel in Stratford. Our nearest Man And Superman broadcast is Tideswell Cinema which looks to be in the upstairs room of The George Hotel in Tideswell. Possibly a bring-your-own-cushion type venue? Then two gigs within four days, both at The Greystones in Sheffield. Our Chris Smither tickets have been booked for a while, then yesterday we saw that Slaid Cleaves is playing there too. And he's bringing Scrappy Jud Newcomb who we saw playing at the Saxon Pub last time we visited Austin. I whinged on Slaid's facebook page a year or so ago that he was touring the US with Scrappy Jud but not bringing him to Europe. Now he is!

After Hope, we have a few nights booked just outside York and then two weeks on the North York Moors. York's Railway Museum has been highly recommended to us and we'll no doubt spend hours just walking the city. Other 'must-see' tips welcome so please comment below if you know the area! In the meantime, I'll leave you with some more bluebells ...

Bluebell fairy path leads away through Foxley Wood 

Bracken and bluebells at Foxley Wood, Norfolk 
Greeting Card
by Stephanie_Jane

Bluebell trail through Foxley Wood, Norfolk 
Greeting Card
by Stephanie_Jane

We hear a bittern and I buy a caravan sized tagine

We drove out yesterday intending to take a look at the famous Norfolk

Norfolk Wildlife Trust - Hickling Broad 

Broads. It turns out that they are actually quite tricky to spot from anything that is not a boat! Dave had plotted a triangular route on the map and we diverted off from that towards Hickling Broad which appeared from the atlas to be a village IN a staithe. And it had a blue bird symbol. The blue bird turned out to indicate a lovely nature reserve run by Norfolk Wildlife Trust, 'a haven for rare Broadland plants and animals'. Once through the little visitor centre, circular walks take in different habitats and there are strategically placed observation points and hides. One stretch was bordered with golden reed beds. We then spotted cut bundles of reeds which looked as though they were awaiting being used for thatch. Dave tried out the look!

Dave the thatcher? 

NWT Hickling Broad NNR is justly proud of its nesting site for bitterns

Memorial plaque in the observation hut
at NWT Hickling Broad NNR 

which were apparently rediscovered there by ornithologist Emma Louise Turner in 1911. She sounds like a fascinating woman and I would like to discover more about her life. If anyone knows of a good biography, please do let me know! We were lucky to hear a bittern booming - quite an eerie sound - and saw enough other birds to make me pleased we had detoured: little egret, lapwing pair, coot, black headed gulls, swallow, plenty of (loud) geese, pheasant and, finally, a chaffinch on the hanging feeder by the visitor centre. I was proud of Dave for recognising the lapwing's call. We definitely should have gone better prepared and probably would have done, had we known where we going! Dave's good camera would have been ideal. My mobile phone wasn't really up to the job so any bird more than about two metres away was just a fuzzy blur. Fortunately this coot agreed to pose:

Coot at Hickling Broad 

We also parked up near Potter Heigham and had a wander along Repps

Egyptian goose 

Riverback. There are two rows of little wooden houses, one each side of the water, which look like holiday homes but each has its own mooring so they are probably pricey. Some weren't much larger than Bailey and they are painted different colours. One was for sale but it consisted of just a grass plot with mooring and a couple of sheds. Nice for setting up a deckchair on a sunny day, but I think it could be bleak there for a lot of the year. There were lots of swans and an aloof Egyptian goose which let me get pretty close for this photo. There is also a large store called Lathams which sold a bit of everything at discount and not-so-discount prices - just like ESK in Eastbourne. We didn't find anything we wanted to buy but I liked this Dormobile outside.

Vintage Dormobile 

Our final visit was to Wroxham, now famous as the site of Roys, 'the largest village shop in the world'. I was amazed by Wroxham, but not in a good way. The village appears to be just one big department-store-come-supermarket and has lost all sense of its history and villageyness. We did manage to find melamine plates to replace then thin blue plastic ones we had been using, and I spotted this gorgeous caravan-sized tagine on special offer at just £4.99! I love the rich orange and red colours. By caravan-sized, I do mean a small version, obviously! It's just 22cm across and was the last in the store so don't bother dashing there to get your own. Sorry!

My new caravan tagine from Roys 

Golden reed bed at Hickling Broad, Norfolk
Greeting Card
by Stephanie_Jane