Hickling holiday, Norfolk Part 2

I felt a bit better on Wednesday and we went out on the boat. We were supposed to pick the boat up at 9am but we had gone to the wrong boat yard as there are two with the same postcode! We finally got on at about 9.30am, we went along Heigham Sound and up to Hickling Broad. At the end of Hickling Broad we stopped at The Pleasure Boat Inn (where we had been on Sunday). We stopped there for a bit then made our way back along Hickling Broad and tried to make a cup of tea but the gas had run out! The boat owner said to come back up to The Pleasure Boat Inn to get another gas bottle but unfortunately he didn't have the right one! So, he let us have the boat for two hours extra, which meant we didn't have to rush back. Again, we went back along Hickling Broad and into Horsey Mere and up to Horsey Windpump. We didn't go into the mill but bought drinks and ice creams from the shop, the mill is owned by The National Trust. After we had finished our drinks we went back along Horsey Mere and Heigham Sound to the boatyard. In all, we had about six hours on the boat, it was a good day and I enjoyed it! We didn't really see that much wildlife and some of the photos came out quite blurred. You can find out about the Norfolk Broads here.

Because I took a lot of photos I thought it would be easier to make a collage of some of them. I have noticed that the collages sometimes look blurred but if you click on them they come into focus.

On Thursday, although the weather wasn't great, we finally got to the beach, we went to Sea Palling and we found 'A trust you car park', basically they trust you to put the money in the box and it all goes to charity. The tide was quite high when we got there and we spent some time looking in the rock pools, we found a few bits including a starfish, lots of sea gooseberries and quite a few dead crabs. We went for lunch at Sandy Hills Snack Bar as we could take the dogs in too and then played in the amusements for a bit. Back on the beach the tide had gone out quite far and we walked out to have a look and I found, what I think, is sea glass! I'm not an expert so maybe someone can tell me if it is sea glass. I loved the beach but we didn't have as long there as I would have liked.

Our beach finds

Sea glass?

On Friday we went to Wroxham Barns, which has some shops, a pottery place, a small farm and a soft play area. It wasn't really my sort of thing, I'm not really into shopping for hours but the others wanted to go. On Saturday I stayed at the cottage while some of the others went into Great Yarmouth to do some shopping. In the afternoon there was a Strawberry Fair just along the lane so we went to that. It was in someone's garden and was really nice, they had a BBQ, beer tent, tombolas, hoopla, stalls and a children's play area. On Sunday we packed and tidied up and made our way home.

The end of the holiday was tinged with sadness as we received a phone call on Saturday evening to say that a friend, who is only 31, had had a heart attack and probably wouldn't pull through and I have just had a phone call to say she passed away this evening.

 

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Hickling holiday, Norfolk Part 1

We are staying at a friends cottage in Hickling, Norfolk. They don't rent it out but let friends and family stay and just ask for a contribution towards the electric bill.

We arrived here quite late on Friday and had sausage and chips from the chip van, just down the road. On Saturday we went to Great Yarmouth, to the market but the weather was quite cold. Sunday was a bit nicer and we had a day in the cottage, playing games in the the garden and then went down to The Pleasure Boat Inn about 3.30pm before having a roast dinner. On Monday we went to Roys of Wroxham, which is a big shopping place selling all sorts of things. Last night I felt really unwell and went to bed early after taking strong painkillers but I didn't sleep very well. I had a temperature, ached all over and had a headache so I stayed in bed for a while this morning. I still don't feel too good and haven't eaten so will have another early night and will hopefully feel better tomorrow as we are going out on a boat early in the morning.

I haven't taken many photos so far but here are a few of the ones I have taken.

Flowers in the garden.

Outside The Pleasure Boat Inn.

Walking back from The Pleasure Boat Inn.

 

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Norfolk holiday

It was lovely to get away for a while, we went Monday to Friday and stayed at Cherry Tree holiday park near Great Yarmouth. We didn't plan on doing much, just relaxing. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked as I was helping out with the children. We had some rain on Wednesday AM but other than that it was dry and sunny but cold in the wind.

Monday was mainly spent travelling there, on Tuesday we went to Great Yarmouth and spent some time on the beach. It was virtually empty, just a few families there and the tide was quite far out so there was lots of sand for the children to play on. It was warm in the sun but the wind was quite nippy! On Wednesday we stayed on the park and went swimming in the morning and then played in the arcade. On Thursday we took the children to Adventure Island Play Park in Lowestoft, a soft play centre and stayed for about four hours, the children really enjoyed themselves and I even had a play too! Friday we played in the arcade before leaving then made our way back home.

Here are a few photos of Great Yarmouth beach. You can just see the wind farm in the distance and they have a Wind Farm Visitor Centre just off of the beach.

 

These are some photos that I took at the holiday park.

 

It's a shame to have to come back home, I love being by the sea but I only have four weeks to wait until I'm away again! I did have a look for Sea Glass and I found a few pieces that looked like it but wasn't. I had unpacked and done all of my washing within a couple of hours of getting back. I'm hoping to get on with some crocheting now that I'm back, I had trouble adding a new colour before I went away.

Today has been a mixed day, with lovely sunshine this morning then rain and feeling really cold this afternoon. At least I got some washing dried on the line earlier. It's lovely seeing the garden coming into bloom and the flowers coming out in the pots I planted up.

Here are my pots still in the greenhouse.

 

The rockery has started to come into bloom now aswell and the Weeping Willow tree looks good with some colour on it. I looked for a link for Weeping Willow but couldn't really find a good one so I took a photo from my book instead.

 

 

Here are some other flowers from the garden.

 

While I have been writing this I have seen wood pigeons, collard doves, blue tits and dunnocks on the bird feeder. I hope you've all had a great weekend!

 

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