Sunday 21st February 2021 - A Shortish One

After spending time over the past few days in our garden and taking advantage of the positive turn in the weather (particularly today when apart from first thing, we haven’t needed to wear jackets) I am running out of time, so today’s blog is going to be a shortish one. With the tides in our favour, we walked the beach on Saturday morning and again today. I took a photo to show that we need some good southerlies to restore the sand but in the meantime the walking is very rough and no good for children wanting to make sandcastles.

Apart from picking debris, washed up on the last high tide, Peter spotted a dead dogfish. This is not an uncommon sight although some are still alive and once placed back in the sea, soon revive and swim off. This morning’s dogfish was not so fortunate but Peter returned it to the sea all the same, where it will provide food for other marine creatures. Another unfortunate was a dead guillemot which looked as though it had been literally blown into the cliff. I was surprised a fox had not taken it back to its den. On our way home, we stopped to chat with one of our village wildlife enthusiasts. Before Storm Darcy hit us, he told us woodcock were making their way across from the continent, ahead of the storm. Today he said, numbers had not made it over successfully, some of which had been seen dead Mundesley beach. Such as shame their efforts resulted in death but from what has been reported on Next Door and Facebook good numbers have been seen in gardens in the locality. Apart from a photo of the beach, I have included some shots of the spring flowers in our garden. There were a few bees around but they all declined to pose and be photographed – spoil sports! As for the rose, I am not sure if the bud overwintered and therefore it’s the last of 2020 or whether it’s the first for 2021 – probably the former.