Sunday 14th September 2025 - Perfect & Peaceful and Finishing Off

Perfect and Peaceful are the two words I would use to describe our walk along the beach this morning.  Apart from, initially seeing a couple, exercising their three dogs on the sands, we didn’t see another soul until we reached our turning point; a groyne not far from Cromer.  Just the other side of the groyne, at the back of the beach, a lady was sat with her flask taking in the beauty and peace of the early morning.  I couldn’t say our walk was entirely peaceful as it was punctuated with high-pitched sounds of the gulls who were feeding on the shoreline but this is their domain and as such they are entitled to do as they please.

I'm finishing off this blog with the final four photos, selected from those I took earlier this month.  

Hawthorn Berries

This shrub/tree provides a valuable source of foods for many different types of wildlife, right from when it blooms (usually May) through the spring and summer and into autumn where we see their bright red fruits in the hedgerows.

Sea Buckthorn Berries

This plant has been introduced on sand dunes to help stabilise them.  However, it is not always welcome as its dense branch system can block out other species.  Here in Overstrand it grows freely on the cliffs and at the back of the beach and does not appear to be detrimental to any other plants.

Red Valerian

This plant is fast coming to the end of its flowering season.  Favoured by hummingbird hawkmoths, which I love to watch, we have a clump in our garden.  However, earlier this month it was not on our valerian where I spotted a pair of hummingbird hawkmoths, they were on one of our pyracnathas.  Here, resting with wings closed, they looked like any ordinary brown moth.

Common Fleabane

To me, these flowers resemble coltsfoot which flower in spring but it’s fleabane that can be seen in later months.  Rather a strange name for a plant but if you consider, it was used in the past, as an incense to drive away insects, this explains all.