Summer home and away

The rhythm of my days has changed, for a short time at least. I've started working in a magazine office for three days a week for the next couple of months. It's my first time in an office for 20 years, so I am still getting used to the change. I take a packed lunch. I rush out of the house in the mornings looking vaguely presentable, I have set hours and sit at my computer all day without jumping up to put the washing out or nip down to the post office....it's very different. With one son away, and the other now 17 and very independent, it seemed like the right time to take up the offer which was made to me.
I continue to edit the local magazine, so my days are choc a bloc now. But there have been plenty of opportunities to get out and about. We spent a lovely weekend in Norfolk last weekend, and yesterday I went to a traditional village fete in the neighbouring county of Rutland. Actually, to be strictly accurate, the village is in Northamptonshire, a few metres away from the Rutland border (someone kindly pointed this out to me on Twitter :))

This was a proper old fashioned fete with a brass band playing, cream teas, plant and cake stall, books, bric a brac and a Tombola. It was drizzling when I arrived, but the sun soon came out and the cagoules came off. We sat in the sun on a garden bench and ate our scones and drank tea. 

Harringworth is the village, and it is famous for this rather wonderful viaduct.

It is such a rural county. There is no McDonalds in Rutland - or any other fast food chains! I felt as if I had stepped back in time. I soon had some company on my stroll. These ladies had squeezed out of their field and began to follow me. The pied piper of chickens, that's me.

Once they realised I had no food, they lost interest, but they did keep me company for some way!

We also had a great weekend away in Norfolk last week. It was a drizzly couple of days, but again, it was still very beautiful. One day we walked over the salt marshes at Thornham to the beach and on the second we did the same, this time at Burnham Overy Staithe. There were so many wildflowers, and so many birds. My Dad was with us and was able to tell us the names of everything we saw. These included a Spoonbill, Egret and Avocet. 

While Dad was spotting birds, I was fascinated by this bank of wildflowers. The others left us way behind! I even spotted some wild lupins.

It's such a dramatic landscape, like nowhere else.

Loved this little boat.

And this red one...

We walked miles. 

And blew the cobwebs away....