Agricultural Auction - a random stop!

I thought I should share this one.  On the way back from Norfolk we stopped in Sutton, Cambridgeshire to meet one of Peter's friends who he worked with many years ago driving relief trucks in Bosnia during the Bosnian war.  He happened to be selling some stuff at this 'vintage machinery' auction (well, that's what I was told it was but it seemed to be all sorts of tractors, steam buses, milking machines and so on...).....so Isobel and I were in the clear minority as we wandered about this place in the sunshine - I reckon I counted about 12 women in total and there were hundreds of men there!  What was interesting (apart from the random selection of items out for sale - see some pictures below, I was particularly taken by the piles of rusting stuff....probably very important...but it does make me think of the pile of motorbike parts we have in our shed as a result of Peter's ebay addiction a few years ago), was that none of these men seemed to know what to do with a 2.5 year old toddler who was screaming 'look mummy, tractor,' and smearing ice cream all over the seats.....

A John Deere - I know some little boys who would be very happy to see one!

My mum and dad used to have one of these wringer things

There was a lovely old Daimler, some great old garage signs and some steam engine type things which were worth a nosey...so I mustn't be too rude about it all!

A to Z of North Norfolk.....

Now our holiday is over, I thought I would try to capture all the highlights in an A to Z. What isn't in here is the agricultural bits and bobs auction we went to on the way home (to come.....very bizarre) and the wonders of the maclaren buggy. North Norfolk - recommended for all I think, couples, families and everyone.

Here goes:
A is for apples which were of the exciting varieties; and austerity measures which were in full swing with homemade picnic every day and eating it outside whatever the weather even if quite cold and really windy;
B is for beaches of which there are many, including Holkham beach which is apparently voted the no. 1 beach by readers of Coast magazine (led to many a discussion in the car on the virtues of a more interesting beach with cliffs and wild shorelines and memories of the photographer we met in Wales who declared pictures of sunny beaches were sp boring and it was much more interesting to tie yourself to a rock in a storm and snap away....); and Blobs; and Burnham Market; oh and birdlife which is really quite apparent here in Norfolk

Norfolk Blob and some sticky date cake!

C is for cake of which we have eaten quite a bit of, our favourite being sticky date cake from grooms bakery; and for Cley on Sea which was lovely and home to some smoked fish as well as a long walk out to the beach; and churches - never seen so many in such a small space
D is for dunes which have tested the maclaren; and for dinosaur as there were lots of toy ones in our cottage which isobel had great entertainment with; and Deepdale Cafe which gave arthhur and Isobel their first experience of a full English (ok so arty had weetabix and isobel porridge....with blackpudding and sausage as you do)
E is for the eerie noise with wind made at Brancaster beach;
F is for farmie (aka farm shop) as there are loads, though some of them cheat a bit and have nothing that local to speak of; and for fish which we ate and which was yummy;
G is for Gun Hill which is apparently a very high sand dune though we couldn't find it; and for gifty which we looked in nut didn't find anything to buy....Norfolk living requires you to buy a bit of driftwood for £500 by the looks of things
H is for Holkham which has a lovely long beach and a country park with deer and lions (!) and massive scones;  Hunstanton where kites were purchased and the Hoste Arms which was not worth the money.

Holkham beach

I is for intrepid Isobel who wasn't afraid to run into th sea on her own and wants to climb on the big girls and boys climbing frame; and for 'I don't want that/to' which seemed to be the new phrase for our toddler
J is for Joules shop which sells tweed coats for children at £75 a pop
K is for kite and kite flying (not sure if this was for Isobel or for dad.....)
L is for local beer and topples which we tried, including Nelsons Blood bitter (dark, flat, slightly spicy) and Nelsons blood spiced rum from the Lord Nelson pub which to be honest tasted like a cross between benilym and mouth rinse.

On the left is the famous blood rum!

M is for the marvellous maclaren; the mad woman who wanted to look after arthur and of course, those Peppa Pig favourites, muddy puddles
N is for narrow gauge railway from wells to Walsingham which was great fun and highly recommended (as are the bacon sarnies which you can get from christine's van at the start); and for nelson, admiral of the high seas, who was born at Burnham Thorpe just round the corner

O is for orange sky which we saw a lot of in the evenings as we had good weather and it really showed the birds up as they flew en masse
P is for pink footed geese which is apparently what we saw flying each night to their roosting grounds; and for pavlovs dog as Arty seemed to demonstrate a real understanding that if you wipe his face after food it means there is no more and queue the crying 'I want more'
Q is for Queen who wasn't in at sandringham; and the q of cars trying to park at holkham beach when we had our heatwave
S is for sandringham and scones (with cream and jam of course); and sea lavender cottage which is where we stayed and would be recommended; and snail as in snails pace which was the average speed of Isobels walking (until we discovered bribery with muddy puddles)

Part of adventure playground at Sandringham

T is for Titchwell where there were lots of twitchers who didn't look top kindly on our descriptions of dicky birds; and time off thanks to Dawn who looked after the little ones to let us go out one night
U is for umbrella whch wasn't needed until the last few days
V is for VW campervan at sandringham which was called PeppA and HMS Victory of course.
W is for Windmill - there were lots, although much to Isobel's disappointment they weren't pink (Cley windmill is particularly nice); and wind which almost blew Isobel away
X is for eXicted which is how we all were almost every day
Y is for yacht and Yurt which was the name of a restaurant we wanted to try but it was closed
Z is for Zoe zebra from Peppa pig......and nothing to do with Norfolk!

Peppa pig, daddy pig and pavlovs dog

We have discovered that life is based on Peppa Pig........having picked up a Peppa Pig magazine for Isobel to act as distraction should she kick off (a bit old for her at the moment but she likes the stories and pictures) we found a highly entertaining and realistic story about daddy pig trying to get fit! Now I love Peter dearly but even he laughed at the similarities - daddy pig wanting to get fit by doing press ups, Peppa pig catching him out as he lay on the sofa shouting out numbers rather than doing them.....and so on. Not sure if it's online somewhere but it is quite entertaining.

The other thing I have been pondering is whether Pavlov's dog experiment really applies to everyone......learned behaviour....you will apparently learn to do or not to do things if repeated enough times. So eventually a toddler should learn not to touch hot things if they keep touching them and find it hurts. So, here we are in this cottage which is a Norfolk cottage with low ceilings etc. And Peter is very tall. And the owners have a low hanging light fitting in the loungey bit. And Peter is not good at looking where he is going. So for 10 days now he has banged into it - every day. A good few times a day.Even when walking straight towards it when you would think he would see it given that his eyes are up there. I have to shout 'head' every time he goes near it!

Lovely trousers don't you think!?

Brancaster beach and blackberry crumble

Had a lovely day at Brancaster beach which is basically a long expanse of sand and dunes on the edge of some tidal marshes. Owned by the National Trust who are happy to warn you that the beach gets cut off at high tide when the road in floods. Very good. Quick check then needed with the car park man re. tides and we were good to go. Now then the challenge with long expanses of sand in Norfolk appears to be the wind.....it was like being in a sandstorm so not really conducive to a long walk with a toddler who was finding it difficult to hold onto her bucket and spade. Few runs needed by mummy down the beach to rescue it.

But nothing as dramatic as daddy who decided to have a go at flying his new stunt kites (for the kids he said.....despite the fact they were nowhere near it....). The kite twirled and twirled and then whoosh it was off, blowing down the beach with Peter sprinting after it. I laughed so much it almost made me cry.

Anyway, after the dramatic kite experience we headed off for a walk to Brancaster Staithe along theq coast path. The trusty maclaren made it yet again. It is truly a wonderful pram.

Did some foraging for blackberries on the way back which allowed some more baking now that the bake off is over! Blackberry, apple and pear crumble was made. Peter loves a nice thick crumble but each to their own when making it. Basically, the crumble needs about 3 apples (we had eating apples but they were quite big) and one pear (conference this time but Comice is also nice) which I sliced into thick slices then stewed slightly with a bit of water for about 10 mins. No sugar added as wanted to keep some of the fruit to wean Arty. Then add the blackberries and simmer for another few minutes, think we had about 600g so it was quite blackberry heavy. Crumble mixture made with 75 g or so of butter rubbed with about 200g flour and then a handful or two of porridge oats and one handful sugar. Baked in oven for about 35 minutes at 200 degrees. Yummy. Isobel loved it and so did arty though he was restricted to just the fruit.

Close up to show the depth of crumble to keep Peter happy!

I made it!

Am feeling very good this evening. Have taken another big step I think towards getting over this post natal depression. I've been running for a few weeks now as i am trying to action the advice I had to do something for me. I used to run loads and loved it. It gives me time to relax which I know some people think sounds a bit odd!

Anyway, since having kiddiwinks I haven't really been able to run. I tried it after Arty was born but stopped, telling myself that my fitness had gone and being annoyed and slightly fed up I think that my running wasn't as it used to be. So I started, slowly slowly and this evening I have managed to run about 4 miles (including hills) with two big achievements - I didn't stop and.....wait for it....I ran to Nelsons birth place! Now I know that might seem a bit strange to be so excited about this but having seen it on the good old ordnance survey (I love those maps, they are so great, perhaps the greatest maps in the world) I decided it was my goal to build up to getting there whilst on holiday. So I was very excited to see the plaque to Nelson....the house having been pulled down in the 1800s.

The running is definitely helping with the PND - not only does it give me a bit of time to myself, it also makes me feel better about myself and counters the sheer amount of cake I like to eat! Stopping the breastfeeding has opened up a whole new set of options for exercise which is great. It's funny as the doctor actually told me to stop breastfeeding - now this is not a normal doctor thing to do! I fretted about it for ages - the breastfeeding lobby had worked their magic on me and the guilt I felt as I thought about stopping was immense. I stopped reading articles about it as it just stressed me out and I got too annoyed by the righteousness of some of the people writing them and acting like you were the biggest evil ever for stopping. The doctor said that whilst breastfeeding is the best thing if it works for you and the baby, sometimes it can make the baby too dependent on the mother when the mother needs her own time and space to get her head back. Happy mother = happy baby. I am glad I stopped. I did it slowly so kept it up until just over 5 months but the difference it has made in terms of my ability to get out a bit more, Isobel's ability to have more time with me (Arty took forever to breastfeeding and about 5 mins with a bottle!), Peter's opportunity to have more time with him and his reduced vomiting and improved skin as a result (I know, weird that - it's meant to be better with breast milk but we had the reverse) is fantastic. And I can wear great bras again - hoorah :-)

What an amazing sight.....

I am not a big birdwatcher but on my run this evening I saw the most wonderful sight of geese migrating to their winter home I presume. There must have been thousands of them. Quite a sight (and quite a noise). Was quite inspired by nature. Run was good too! If only I had had a camera. Oh and a blob is called a blob because it is just a blob of dough.....not shaped like a cob....so there we go, a nice simple reasoning behind the Norfolk Blobb