In No Particular Order

A sort of random post today.

When I go up to my parents in North Norfolk I tend to go on the back roads to avoid the tourists (a coast road in summer can be a very slow moving, frustrating journey) and I've often seen this little church through the trees.

For years it had scaffolding etc around it but recently I noticed that it had gone so last weekend I decided to drive up the track and have a closer look.

It has a beautiful round tower and amazing arches.

It was the church for the village of Appleton, a village that has long since gone although apparently you can see outlines of it when the fields are lightly dusted with snow.

I haven't found out why the village disappeared but I hope that one day someone might do some excavations, although I suspect that might be unlikely as it is all on the Sandringham Estate land.

Still - the arches are pretty, I don't know why I'm so fascinated with arches, especially ruined ones!

A few days before I went to my parents I finished my fairisle cardigan.  I ended up having to do a last minute re knitting of one sleeve when I discovered that I'd made a colour mistake on one of them - fortunately very near the top so I only had to unravel about 20 rows.

I'm really pleased with it.

Finally, yesterday I took the afternoon off work and my friend and I drove to the other side of Suffolk, about 1.5 hrs away to Minsmere.

First stop was the Bittern Hide where a bittern was on the edge of the reed bed opposite for about 20 minutes preening, and fishing.  Then he crouched down, puffed himself up and boomed.  I've never heard a bittern boom before let alone watched one do it.  The warden in the hide was beside himself with excitement too as he's never seen it in 20 years of bird watching (red arrow indicates the bittern, looks a long way away but the view through binoculars was stunning).

click to enlarge and nearly see the bittern!

Then we walked to the Island Mere Hide.  It rained whilst we were in here but it didn't stop the bearded tits from flying around and one perched for quite some time on a reed and we got a really good view.

When it stopped raining we walked to the scrape where amongst other things we saw a marsh harrier swoop down and take a black-headed gull chick (gruesome but kind of retribution for the fact that they've taken all of the avocet chicks so far this year!).

After a cup of tea overlooking the sand martins we made our way to the Discovery Centre and then upward through the woods to the Springwatch studio to be in the audience for the live transmission of Springwatch Unsprung.

me, far left

It was just as good as last year!

Minsmere is a wonderful place to visit - during our three hours on the reserve we saw/heard at 11 species, most of which are rare or threatened.  If you're into wildlife and in the area I can highly recommend it.
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24 Hours in.... Birthday Land - Part 2

Following on from my incredible night at Springwatch Unsprung I meandered my way back across Suffolk to Minsmere the next morning to spend the day there for my birthday treat (this had been planned for months, well before I was offered the Unsprung tickets).

 

The views across the reserve are fantastic.  I didn't get to hear a bittern booming as I'd hoped to, but I did see 3 fly over from one of the hides which was an incredible sight.

Minsmere has many different habitats including reed beds and wetlands where I saw many avocets and avocet chicks.

Those of you who watched the Springwatch series will know that an unlikely star of the show turned out to be a 5cm long stickleback, named by the presenters as Spineless Si.  From the boardwalk to the Island Mere hide it was really easy to see him as the cameras indicated where he was - I couldn't get a photo of him due to the placement of the camera and the sun, but i did get this one of his 'friend' Frisky Phil (the object in the top right of the photo is the underwater camera filming him).

I walked for miles, not just watching birds and sticklebacks but also enjoying the wild flowers including this southern marsh orchid.

I also tested the cafe out and confirm that the cake is excellent (well it was my birthday!),

and whilst I ate it I sat and watched the sand martins flying in and out of the cliffs.

I saw lots of other wildlife, including a great white egret and a crested grebe.  It was a fabulous day and I can honestly say it's one of the best birthdays I've ever had.  

If you ever get the chance to visit Minsmere I can highly recommend it, it's part of an area of outstanding natural beauty which includes 155 square miles of wetlands, heaths, woodlands, coastline  and pretty towns, managed by the RSPB, the National Trust and Suffolk Wildlife Trust amongst others - you could easily spend a week here and not get bored!

24 Hours in.... Birthday Land - Part 1

It was my birthday this week, it was a big one, and something VERY special happened. Last week I was watching Springwatch Unsprung and tweeted this:

It was favourited by a BBC Radio Suffolk journalist and I didn't think anything more about it until last Saturday when I received a message from the same journalist (Jon Wright) asking me if I'd like tickets for Unsprung on Wednesday.  Would I!!!!

Details of the evening were sent and my excitement levels grew daily!

I asked my neighbour Jill if she'd like to come with me and we left here at 4.45 for the 1.5hr drive across Suffolk to Minsmere.

When we arrived we met up with Radio Suffolk journalists Jon Wright and Etholle George and they recorded the first part of an interview with us.

Jill, Etholle and me

We then had our briefing with the producer and were taken over to the BBC production village to watch some of the main programme as it was being transmitted.

At 8.40 we were led through the woods to the back of the studio where we waited until the main programme ended. As I'd volunteered to contribute a dialect word during Unsprung I was told exactly where I had to stand.  We started to creep into place while they were filming the end of Springwatch as on Wednesdays Unsprung is on BBC2, as opposed to the red button, so there was very little time to get everyone in.

I couldn't believe my luck! I'd ended up right next to Chris Packham, with Robert MacFarlane and Alison Steadman just to my right!

Being in the audience was amazing - the set was fantastically detailed (throw back to my dance career always make me interested in sets and the technicalities of shows) and the camera men and sound engineers moved at such speed.  

All of the guests were really interesting, and as someone who loves language and linguistics I was especially fascinated by Robert MacFarlane.  I was so thrilled to be able to contribute the dialect word for ladybird, a Bishy Barnabee.

After the end credits rolled we all left the set and we met up with Jon and Etholle to record the final part of the interview.  

The interview was broadcast on the breakfast show the next day (1:54:29) but as this link won't last past a month I've put the interview below:

It was a fantastic experience, thanks totally to BBC Radio Suffolk - a birthday to remember!

The actual Unsprung programme is available on BBC player until the beginning of July.

I went back to Minsmere the next day to spend my birthday there, but that's another blog post :-)