living on the North Norfolk Coast

What a difference a few extra degrees of warmth brings.  With temperatures rising, over the past couple of days, we’ve only needed the central heating on, first thing and again late afternoon into the evening.  The door into the conservatory has been open and this is where we’ve been back breakfasting and lunching, while looking out over the garden.  Yesterday, I enjoyed my mug of midmorning coffee, (for the first time this year) sat on a garden bench, sun on my face, listeni

According to a report on the TV, we’ve had just five hours of sunshine this year.  Today, this number should be more than doubled – it’s been glorious from sunrise to sunset.  It’s pretty cold in the shade but this has to be a small price to pay after day upon day of grey and as an extra bonus, no rain today.   With the bottom of the garden in full sun, I pruned our apple tree.  I used the loppers to reduce the height and other branches were trimmed back, using secateurs, to

On Tuesday afternoon, I went to the Overstrand Gardening Club’s first meeting of 2026.  Annual subscriptions of £15 were being collected plus there was the usual raffle.  On the subject of the raffle, last November I won the raffle, a £10 gardening voucher.  I used this to purchase an Amaryllis growing kit from Thistle and Tide in Cromer.  The bulb was truly spectacular, producing two spikes of buds, each with five blooms; I was well impressed.  The meeting’s speaker was Dr D

I couldn’t resist the blue skies and sun, on Saturday morning. It wasn’t long before I was out in the garden.  Initially, I thought it would be, despite the sun, too cold to stay more than about a half an hour but I ended up spending the entire morning in the back garden, tidying and manuring borders along with the soft fruit bushes and trimming shrubs. Yes, the soil was wet but considering the amount of rain we’ve had over the past month, not stodgy.  When I’d finished, my t

The posters, promoting the forthcoming Christmas events are dotted around the village.  Rather than covering these, here in my blog, I have taken photos of the posters and included them below (click on the individual posters to enlarge).  As you can see there will be plenty to see and join in, as well as refreshments to be enjoyed, in the lead up to Christmas.  I am looking forward to seeing the Christmas trees in the church.  There was a brilliant selection last year, all wi

I have used most of the quinces, Jim Paine gave me at the Gardening Club meeting, and made the membrillo (quince paste) he recommended.  I can’t at this point say whether we like this or not, simply because we haven’t tried it yet!  Jim suggested eating it with cheddar cheese, which we always have in the fridge, but online Manchego is recommended or a similar very hard cheese.  This is not a cheese we have that often (sometimes used as an alternative to parmesan), therefore t

I completely forgot to mention, in my last blog, our first sighting this year of the pink foot geese.  This was on the morning of 1 st ...

With low tides, first thing, this week we’ve been able to walk along the promenade (dipping down onto the beach where the slumps are and...

I have a fair bit to write about, so I’m going to crack on.  For starters; we’ve had rain showers today.  We could do with a lot more,...

There have been three highlights to this week.  Two were related to some impressive achievements by our two sons – we’re super proud of...

After writing, in my last blog, about it being cooler on Saturday morning, a few hours later it all changed.  In the morning, we walked...

I’m enjoying the summer weather, but are the hoverflies?  As soon as the temperatures rise, numbers arrive in our conservatory, as if out...

I'm totally impressed with the result Fix My Street was able to achieve, regarding the broken tarmac pavement in Cliff Road. Reported to...

Back when Overstrand had a WI group, it became a tradition, in June, to take an evening walk followed by what we termed as a ‘strawberry...

Still hoping to see sand martins, on Tuesday we walked the opposite way from Trimmingham, towards Cromer.  The storm surge in December...

As much as we are enjoying the sun and blue skies, there is no denying a drop of rain would be appreciated.  Not just for our garden but...

Following on from my blog for 26th April, where I said about reporting two issues in the village to Fix My Street.  These were passed to...

We attended the Annual Parish Meeting on Wednesday evening.  Various reports were given but for this blog, I will be focusing on the...

For a council which encourages tourism, North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) are working towards discouraging tourists from visiting the...

Given the beautiful sunny days with blue skies, we’ve enjoyed recently, I shouldn’t complain about the easterly winds which have kept...