Mundsley Beach, Norfolk

I went to Mundsley beach on a whim, no job/ friends all having jobs this summer has left me with far too much time on my hands. 

Mundsley is one of the beaches I most regularly visited as a child, my family share a beach hut there with some of our friends so we used to go their a couple of times a week in the summer when the weather was good. The parents would sit on the promenade that over looks the beach leaving us to play for hours in the sea. I have a very vivid memory of being in the sea with my sister and our friend Amy when it started to thunder, as we were kids we decided to stay in and see what happened.

The war monument and maritime museum, its 50p entry!

Beach huts over looking the beach

Beach Huts - I think my families is number 5

The beach

Looking towards Bacton

Woman enjoying some private time on the beach

This is my favourite coloured beach hut

The new life guard hut

Salthouse, North Norfolk

Rachel and I decided to take a trip down memory lane and go feed the ducks on the river that runs through Salthouse, we brought a loaf of bread for 82p, that the ducks and swans etc devoured. It was a better visit than when I last went, when me and lucy had to take cover in the car to avoid getting mugged by seagulls.

A family feeding the ducks on the river

Rachel feeding the ducks

Cows grazing by the river

Rank algae growing on the river

After we used all the bread we took a trip along the coast to Wells, it was so hot and we got pretty lost.

Happisburgh Lighthouse, Beach and Cliffs

21/6/2010

The sun has finally emerged from whatever cloud it was lurking behind and is once again embracing us in its sauna like death grip giving us the most fantastic heatwave, it is most definitely shorts and ice cream weather.

On Monday evening I had a sudden craving to go to the beach, I chose to go to Happisburgh (pronounce haze-burgh) because its relatively close to me, but I don't think I've ever actually been there.

Happisburgh is one of those villages that is ravaged by coastal erosion, the beach is littered with massive concrete boulders that are the remnants of a ramp that used to lead directly on to the beach that has long since crumbled into the sea as the cliffs recede. Houses that are now only metres from the cliff edge lay deserted, and the road that used to go to the beach now comes to an abrupt end at the edge of the cliff. In 10-15 years quite a big portion of Happisburgh will fall into the sea and cease to exist.

It was a beautiful evening to take photos, and I saw several people with far superior cameras to mine who I silently envied. *sigh*. We walked along the cliff top path and then headed down to the beach, the remains of the old path now lay on the beach, and the new way down to the beach is to go down a ricketty set of a stairs that look as though a single gust of wind would make the tower collapse like a game of jenga. I went with Joe, who got angry with me for taking to long to take photos, we almost got drenched by a rogue wave but we managed to out run it just in time.

The lighthouse that dominates the surrounding landscape

Happisburgh beach from the cliff tops

Dead end: this is end of the road that runs through the village

Collapsed concrete path on the cliffs and beach

View of beach from the campsite

Camp site on top of the cliffs

This is how you now get on to the beach

New posts, you can clearly sea the old posts that have rotted away and had to be replaced

Broken path

Lighthouse

The Mo Museum, Sheringham Norfolk

On Friday, me and Joe went to Sheringham, it was really windy on the beach so we decided to go to The Mo: The Sheringham Museum. The Mo was built using lottery funding and opened to the public earlier this year, the museum charts the development of how the town changed from a small fishing town to popular Victorian tourist resort due to the building of the train line that joins North Norfolk with the rest of the country.

The Mo is a two story building placed right on the sea front promenade, on the bottom floor there is a display of fishing boats and old and new lifeboats. On the second floor there is a gallery and exhibition of old shop fronts and a viewing tower that looks out over the sea and Sheringham Town as well as lots of information about the history of the town itself.

My favourite part of the trip was seeing the shop fronts upstairs, it was really cool because they were layed out like a mini street, each shop had vintage sign posts and props in the window to make them look authentic and like they were still in use. It was a really interesting and informative visit and well worth the £3 entrance fee.

Fishing Boat

List of life boat men

A lifeboat

Mascots aboard one of the life boats

Upstairs: Display of Shop fronts

This was my favourite shop because it had pretend lobsters and crabs in the window (sorry about the wonky picture)

FAKE CRUSTACEANS!

View over-looking Sheringham

View out to sea

Next week: The Cromer Musuem!

Taken from the website: www.sheringhammuseum.co.uk

Opening times and dates 2010

29 March to 31 October

Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4:30pm

Sunday, midday to 4pm

Admission

Adults £3.50

Concessions £3.00

Children (5-16) £1.50, under 5's free

Groups of 10+ £2.50, School groups *free*

Advance booking for schools is essential

Whitlingham Country Park, Norwich, Norfolk

18/06/2010

Went for a walk with Lucy at Whitlingham Country Park , which is just outside of Norwich. We went just as the sun was setting and everything looked really pretty but there were thousands of swarms midges which decided they rather liked biting us. There we also hundreds of geese, one of which thought my camera was a tasty bird snack and so decided to chase us for ages until we out smarted him by running away faster than he could chase us. 

Whitlingham park is also an outdoor watersports centre where you can take sailing and canoeing lessons or if you already have experience you can rent them by the hour.

View of the Lake

Funny statue

There are hundreds of geese at whitlingham park

No idea what this means, what even is underwater suction?

View of the Lake at sunset

The Bird Hyde

Eugh midges. There were too many of them

There are lots of these small jetty type things

Reflection of the sky in the lake

Pretend beach

View of lake and fake beach

Felbrigg Gardens, Norfolk

I received a voucher through the post the other week from the National Trust for a free cream tea for two, so what better excuse for me and Ellen to visit Felbrigg hall? As you can see from the photos it was a gorgeous day, and yes I did get sunburnt. Typical.

Felbrigg House

Afternoon (11.50am) tea in the courtyard

We decided to cash in our voucher as soon as we arrived - even though it was a bit early for afternoon tea - and sat outside in the courtyard for a bit, since it was too nice to sit inside.  

As usual we were the youngest people there by about 50 years.

We then went to walk around the gardens for a bit because Ellen wanted to see if the vegetables she is growing were superior to the ones growing at Felbrigg. 

On the way we went past the donkeys who have been there for as along as I can remember. Apparently they can live to between 50-80 years! I do not think that is true. The national trust must be lying.

Punchy...... or Judy

Gardens

Flower Beds

Produce growing in the garden

Cabbages in their special cabbage prison

Gooseberries

Artichokes

The orchard

Lovely Lupins

My favourite - bees!

The best bench in the world!

Roses on the wall