I was away and now I'm back

I have had this post half-written for a while so I'd best just post it and start afresh!

May seems to be over. I did not cook from my book for two weeks and I took loads of pictures but hardly any with my photo theme of the month. Oh well. I will do a recipe round-up in a day or two, because I did get in a couple.

Let's see if I can condense two weeks holiday into a reasonable number of pictures... 

We missed spring flowers by a couple of weeks, but when we were in King's Lynn, the California Lilac was simply amazing! What a colour.

Everywhere we went we saw preparations for the Jubilee celebrations coming up next weekend. I did not add to my pile of royal plates. (I have thrift store pieces from both the Charles/Diana and Andrew/Fergie weddings.)

We spent a few days getting our bearings in King's Lynn and then quick took the bus to Hunstanton, where our walk started. 

The cliffs at Hunstanton are white chalk and red chalk and red carstone. Very striking. I know from 2019 that there are also cliffs in Cromer, the other end of our walk. 

I was unprepared, however, for the miles and miles of marshy, sandy, tidal flats in between. It's great bird habitat. We are not birders. 

Early on, we could see the beach and the sand and, way out there, the water. 

As time went on, though, the salt marshes took over and the water disappeared. The "coast" is pretty ill-defined, with shifting sands, grassy bits, dunes, erosion from one year to the next. We often walked along the top of a dike, or sea defense. 

Marsh on the left; fields on the right. And we just kept going, in between. 

After a couple of days of apparently endless salt marshes, we played hooky. We took a bus to Morston Quay and got a boat out to the seal colony. Alas, May is not a good month for seals, but we did see a few, and we got a boat ride. As you can see it was a bit of a grey day. We got to wear our woolly hats, so we didn't carry them all that way for nothing!

Our last day started in Cromer. We were scheduled to take the bus back to Blakeney and then walk to Cromer but we decided to walk to the next town along, Sheringham, and see what we felt like once we got there. It started to rain, so we nipped in to the museum, but it was nice and clear when we got out so we walked back. 

Then, magically, we turn up in London! 

Impromptu Covid memorial: 

More Jubilee prep: 

What's on the fourth plinth?! 

Our dinner on Tuesday! 

We went to Hampton Court. Again we had just missed the spring flowers, but the peonies and roses were out, and the whole house (palace!) and garden were pretty amazing. 

A smattering of photos:

We had one more day in London which we spent in a couple of small museums and out wandering about. I left my phone on a park bench once, and had to retrace my steps, not sure where exactly I'd left it! That all ended well but it was a bit of a panic for a few minutes! We ate well, walked a lot, got hailed on once, were delighted with everything. 

I am sort of back in this time zone, but I do find myself awake early in the morning. Our youngest is moving to a basement suite 10 houses away, so soon I won't be awakened by her getting up in the morning. And we'll all be back to normal! Always a new normal...