Monday 20th May – Monday 27th May 2019

Another week of minimal rambling I’m afraid due to metatarsal repair!  And not that I’m looking for equal attention or anything but I’m now also suffering from injury – seems like I have a return of bursitis to my knee (oh the delights of running)!  So we’re a couple of poorly little soldiers – having to sit and relax and enjoy the countryside from a horizontal position.  Not that that’s too traumatic – we have stunning views and the birdlife here is keeping us fascinated – we’ve become quite the ‘twitchers!’

 

So a huge variety of birds come to feed in the garden and then as the garden overlooks this amazing pond we get to watch ducks, geese, moorhens and cormorants glide around in the water.  And really we can lose hours just spectating this beautifully simple slice of nature.  In the time we’ve been here we’ve already noticed the young ducklings and goslings growing and losing their fluffiness.  And we’ve observed the parents teaching their young to bob down into the water to feed … they seem to enjoy learning this new skill of sticking their bottoms in the air – there’s a lot of splashing goes on.  So as well as twitching, we’re also developing our wildlife photography skills.

 

 

On Wednesday we took a trip into King’s Lynn to do a spot of essential chain store shopping – a quick in and out and then we stopped off at Hunstanton on the way back.  This is clearly a popular seaside resort – some amazing Victorian houses but also it’s swamped with amusement arcades and souvenir tackiness!  We stopped off first at the quieter end – Old Hunstanton Beach with its spectacular rock formation.

When we got out of the car, both Steve and I headed for the nearby public toilets.  Even we laughed at ourselves as we crossed the road both hobbling and limping like good’uns!  The onlooking cafe users would never have known we were a Marathon Man and his 5k side-kick!  Our pride wanted to shout out “we’re runners you know!”

Even though it was on the chilly side we found a quiet sheltered spot and settled down with our picnic box and chairs, enjoying the peace and the views.  Very shortly however we were joined by chatty neighbours with two boisterous dogs.  All would have been fine if it hadn’t been for one of the dogs insisting on jumping up at our cool box and sniffing into our beef sandwiches and drinks.  The lady half-heartedly called out “come away Lucky” … but seemed to have no intention of following through on her instruction!

I headed down to the beach for a little walk while Steve packed up the picnic.  In my absence Steve suffered further annoyance from our neighbours!  He had taken out his much treasured travel binoculars (which apparently have great magnification) … only for the chap to sidle up to him with a rather larger pair, saying “now this is what you call binoculars!”  And to make things worse, the wife said “Oh you Boys!!”  I just wish I’d seen Steve’s face!

 

On Saturday, Steve volunteered to do the bar code scanning at the Holkham Hall Parkrun.  As I was also unable to run I went along to spectate and for some photo opportunities – beautiful place.  Hoping I’ll be fit to run it next week.  Before we left we joined hundreds of runners in the very luxurious cafe, for coffee and sausage rolls.

And so, apart from popping out to a Church book sale in Docking on Sunday, it’s been a very ‘house confined’ time.  The Bank Holiday weather has been grim too.

 

So not much action to report this week but we are getting ourselves geared up for David Attenborough’s retirement!  Plenty going on without having to leave our post – woodpeckers, chaffinch, swallows, blackbirds, blue tits, jackdaws, pigeons, doves, robins, magpies, swifts and swallows in the garden …. ducks and geese of unusual varieties, red kites impressively gliding overhead, cormorants perching majestically in the trees … and our very own ‘goose on the roof.’