Sunday 6th April 2025 - Shouldn't Complain, First BBQ, Coconut Perfume and Source of Food

Given the beautiful sunny days with blue skies, we’ve enjoyed recently, I shouldn’t complain about the easterly winds which have kept temperatures down.  Instead, I should be thankful that it’s been sunny and if you can find a spot out of the wind, you can really feel the strength in the sun’s rays.  However, in the shade it’s positively chilly and at times not at all pleasant.  Still, this is the price to be paid when living on the coast in an exposed area.  The chill didn’t stop Peter from BBQing yesterday evening, our first for 2025.  With the BBQ moved to a sheltered spot, we stood out in the garden, me wearing a winter jacket and Peter a thick body warmer, watching strips of pork belly, sausages, peppers and mushrooms cook.  The pork belly was recommended to us by a fellow villager.  The belly strips, purchased from Mundesley Butchers on Friday, where very lean and they cooked well but we expected them to have more flavour.  In future we will stick with the pork steaks from the butchers, which have always been tasty.  

We’ve enjoyed another walk inland, this time on an afternoon.  We spotted a pair of muntjac deer who wandered off into the undergrowth, a pair of buzzards wheeled above the trees, skylarks were singing and a solitary cowslip flower was breaking open.  I spotted more clusters of blackthorn flowers, mentioned in my blog for 29th March, which makes me wonder if I’ve not been observant enough in previous years to notice the clusters.  Or, is it a case that, following such an awful spring in 2024 when few flowers set and produced sloes. these shrubs are producing a greater number of flowers this year, which are forming clusters?  I had to stop for a while and take in the wonderful coconut perfume coming from the bright yellow gorse flowers.

In our garden, we've been watching a pair of blackbirds, as they dip down into one of Peter’s compost bins.  The rotting vegetation is providing them with a rich source of worms and other bugs to feed their babies. They are back and forth every few minutes and although the numbers of worms are being depleted, we don’t begrudge the blackbirds.  With open beaks back at their nest, who can blame the parents for choosing an easy way to supply their youngsters with food.  

While I was out in the garden the other day, I took some photos of the spring flowers.  I will use these to practice my drawing.  I was so surprised to see the delicate shading and markings when I lifted the flower on a hellebore, on a plant given to us last year. I am sharing this with you as today’s photo and I hope when I draw the flower, I will do its beauty justice.