On a Wednesday...

...you can find me here...

at Docking Local Produce Market...you can come and visit between 10am - 3pm, though people do arrive earlier...the bacon sandwiches are rather good!  Along with me there is a variety of others...just a selection...

Cherry Tree Chocolates

Art Donald

Cupcake Dad

Marshland Pies

Check the website for everyone else...there's lots more!!

And a new cushion for the event...

See you tomorrow!!

A little...

...time, sunshine and a working camera.  It's amazing what you can get done with those three things.

Home...

...from having great fun at Drove Orchard Food and Craft Fair.  It was a tad chilly, but sunny all morning and people came in their "droves" (sorry for the pun!)...  Sold a variety of items and lots of people asking about other bits.

It's always good to catch up with other stallholders, old friends and to make new ones.  Now I could sleep for a week...but, photos need to be taken, a website needs to be finished...

So the next one is Sunday, July 22....and if you didn't get to todays, then we'll love to see you then!  And it's been said I can take the other items too!

A completely...

...good week!

Monday was our wedding anniversary...thirty five years young and still happy.  Like most we have had highs and lows, but the lows haven't been depths, and are usually because of something daft and not meaningful.  We took ourselves off to Dereham, (not the highlight capital of Norfolk), but we just wanted to do something normal, as we're usually at opposite ends of Anglia for the week, so try to cram all into weekends.  It's a pleasant town and has the joy of "Steptoes"...second-hand furniture store which can hide gems...we turned up two, which came home with us, so our kitchen is now complete...after two years.

Whilst in France I found a market stall selling linen, how can you not buy some...so having washed and pressed it, I started making the cushions for Drove Orchard Fair...7th May is the day.  I will be taking some photos...so please be patient.  There will be other items too.

Then to top the week Charlton (already promoted) were crowned champions, with the possibility of taking another record...highest League One points tally.  So, with a manager who is in his first managerial job...and a team of nearly all new players, who didn't need time to gel or learn how to play together...(beautiful excuses), they did it and showed those who doubted exactly what they were made of!  I hope all doubters are eating humble pie...  All you need is belief...

And I...

...forgot to show you this...

 A fun light pull called "North Norfolk", as it looks like the sand, sea and sky of our beautiful coastline...

Castle Acre...

Last weekend, well the one previously, as it's now bank holiday Monday, we took our grandsons out for the day. We had one thing to do first, and that's visit a shop in Holt, but other than that...we visited the Christmas shop in Holt for them and bought two hearts and a decorated gingerbread-styled star for their Mum. It's open all year, and is worth the visit if you're heading that way.

After that we stopped in the "Best Farm Shop in Norfolk"...Back to the Garden and had some lunch, picked up some cheese and pasties..all good! Bought some asparagus and strawberries from a farm, and showed the boys the front of the house we're trying to buy...we got their approval. Then off to Castle Acre...

Photographs of Castle Acre Priory

The first photo shows a model of how it was in it's heyday, and the second shows the majority of what's left...after Henry VIII got to it. It's an English Heritage property, along with the castle. If you want to visit the priory, unless you're a member of English Heritage, there is a charge, but the ruins of the castle (not so well preserved) are free to roam around.

The village has two tea shops and two pubs...and at present it's Open Studio time in Norfolk.

Luckily the boys wore themselves out! And I know where I can take them to play when we move, it'll only be ten minutes away...and the beach is twenty minutes in the other direction!

An away...

...day, yesterday. A trip to Norfolk and a visit to the house, being allowed to wander and poke...it hasn't changed. We went to visit the agent there...who I'd been talking to on a near daily basis, just to say "hi....this is us". Also a call from our agent, who'd had a visit from the buyers...were we leaving the Aga and dishwasher? Unless they specifically don't want the cooker...it's staying...though I'm going to hug it when I leave it behind! I know I'll burn everything for weeks with the electric... A replacement will have to be sought at sometime...I'm sorry, but once an Aga addict, always an addict...

And the other version of my Addicktion...the season ticket prices were announced yesterday. I know we're moving further away, that's our choice...but watching League One football for the same price as I paid for Championship football is a little rich. Because we sit in the Lower North stand, our tickets are the ones that haven't been reduced in price...every other seat for the home supporters have...so what did we do for this honour? Are they trying to move us out? Some supporters have wished for it to become a standing area.... If we wanted to sit there on a match by match basis...we'd be paying through the nose (relatively speaking) for the privilege... Decisions, decisions!!

Is it too...

...ott to shout from the rooftop? Maybe a little early?!

We've agreed our sale and purchase...of course, that's just the start...now we have to go through the surveys and searches...but, it's a start! Though I'll only believe it's happened when I have the key in my hot little hand, and I'm standing inside the house.

Fingers crossed!

In another...

...blog I follow, the writer gives what he calls "The Gellies". He's an avid traveller, and a follower of the same team as me. But, his Gellies awards made me smile, and gave me food for thought.

He gives shower gel ratings to several hotels he's visited during the previous year. From the unspectacular to the wow! Comments as to why, and links are included...

It made me think of the best I've come across, which was a Bed and Breakfast establishment in Kings Lynn Norfolk. The Bank House was wonderful, and I discovered it purely by chance. My husband had gone sailing for a week and we were taking the tentative steps of looking around Norfolk with the view to move. This, was maybe about three years ago. I went to Norfolk for a few days, turned up in Lynn with no accommodation booked. We tend to use the Tourist Information offices...we even did that in the US, and it's never failed us yet. There were a couple, but I preferred to stay in the town, and settled upon The Bank House...I couldn't have done better. It was simply the best...a cliche, but true. So good I took my husband back the following year.

I thought I'd show what I mean...so following the link...I've discovered it's changed, whether that's the owner too, I don't know, but it's now Bankhouse Hotel with a chef and all. When I visited it didn't cater for dinner or lunches, and there was no terrace, and the family who ran it lived there, now it has all that, and a drinks licence. It did have the most wonderful rooms (which you can't see on their site now), and lots of shower gel (it says Molton Brown)...plus!

Things move on...but, I think I'd like to try it again...only in the cause of investigation, you understand!

Oh, and for anyone viewing from Canada...Lynn is where Captain Vancouver came from.

Ancestry...

...and all that!

I've been tracing mine and my husband's family trees over the last few months, and I've established true lines going back to 1750ish...with hints going back a further three hundred years, but that all needs to be verified.

Today I made a discovery which was quite a coincidence. We've been hoping to move to Norfolk, and though we've nearly decided to stay put for the time, we did find a house in Alby, near Aylsham (sold now), and looked at ones in Beetley...and near Fakenham. In the family tree, I knew my great-grandfather came from Norwich, Norfolk and was a carpenter...today, I found his father and sisters...and between them they were born in Beetley, Stibbard, near Fakenham, and Alby. That seems spooky to me! Part of my husband's mother's family we've discovered came from Norwich too, of which she had no knowledge!

Seems the draw of "home" was calling for both of us!