A walk down a lane

Yesterday we were having a pretty lazy day at home, and I decided to take a little walk in the afternoon just to say I'd been outside.

I went down a lane that had all sorts of signs about Private Lane and No Through Road and so on.

There were a couple of decorated garage doors.

I wouldn't call this decorated. Just old paint.

The lane was not paved, at least not this century.  Potholes and puddles and mud.

And there was a way out at the other end!

I just had to cross over the pedestrian bridge, and home again.

Tonight we are eating the lamb stew I made yesterday, with some colleagues of Stephen's. I bought a fractal cauliflower to amuse the physicists.

Ooops, missed a day

I seem to have gone about my business yesterday without blogging! Oh, dear.

Today so far, I have watched two and a half episodes of the new series of the Crown on Netflix, and I have stuck a pot of stew in the oven. We will eat that tomorrow night when a colleague of Stephen's comes for dinner.

Yesterday I did take a picture of this wacky plant outside our apartment, which I am informed is a Mahonia.

It just started blooming recently, when other plants are losing their leaves, so I say it is marvellous.

More action today will involve cleaning up, going to the store and watching more of the Crown.

That was fun

It's always a treat to go to London! I met up with my friend and we did a wander through the British Museum, getting distracted and ending up in Korean pottery when we'd set out for the Elgin Marbles.

We went to see clocks, because I remember going to see them in maybe 1972. This wooden case was amazing!

There was a volunteer in the coins room telling us about all sorts of coins through history. What a bonus!

If you are the British Museum you can find the very best example of a certain coin and just put the one out, unlike many smaller places that try to impress with the large number of crappy ones they have. This Athenian "owl" coin is perfect and impressive all on its own!

The Lewis Chessmen looking splendid.

Those Korean pots we stumbled across.

So modern looking, yet some are 400 years old.

Ah, the Elgin Marbles!

My friend lives in Walthamstow, sort of in the northeast corner of the London sprawl. I got to ride on an Overground train, for one stop.

William Morris spent some of his life in Walthamstow as well, and his family's house there is a little museum. It was lovely, but very dark for photos. Imagine a sample book of fabrics from his shop! I could see it, but of course not flip through it! I did buy a tote bag... which I need like a hole in the head but whatever.

A quick walk down the High Street this morning, looking at fabric stores, and back on the train for me.

Delighted to see this ridiculous tree at the Cambridge Station. It wants to be a big old redwood in California that someone cut a hole in in 1941.

And now I am home alone for 24 hours, and I have restarted my Netflix subscription and am having yogurt and muesli for supper. Fun times!

Off to London

I have a friend in London to visit today. We will tackle the British Museum, unless the sun comes out.

I wish I had a vintage Morris Minor to travel in, but I shall be on the train, as usual. 

More seaside

On our second day in Cromer we walked west.

I am used to beaches, I have seen lots of rocks and tides and waves. But this might have been my first flinty, chalky, "completely concerned with erosion" beach experience.

The cliffs are chalk overlaid with sandy dunes. Once the chalk starts to crumble, the sand tumbles down. We saw caravan parks on top of the cliffs, and occasionally a concrete pad halfway down the slope. Fences had been made, but now some of their posts have nothing to stick into. The coastal path takes several detours because parts have fallen away.

Bit of a mudslide

On the Cromer beach there are groins heading out to sea, stopping, I suppose, the sand from progressing down the shore. On this beach there was also a fence parallel to the shore, made of wood and metal and a bit of concrete, and I guess it was to stop the waves crashing on shore and eroding the cliffs.

It was an impressive structure, but falling to bits itself now, with bolts holding nothing in place.

The flint rocks form in the chalk, and then fall out, covering the beach. We were told we could find fossils on this stretch, but no luck!

We walked to Sheringham and took the train back. It is just four miles, but we couldn't walk back along the beach as the tide was coming back in. There is a nice walk inland, but we had had enough, and after a Sunday Roast lunch in the Two Lifeboats, the train seemed the best option.

Coming back to our B&B from the train station, we passed this little church.

Flint and brick and terra cotta and some white capitals just because!

It was a crazy-looking building, in need of some care.

Pretty fancy.

I like the terra cotta and flint and all the doodads.

And that was our weekend in Cromer. I'd like to learn more about the erosion and how that will all progress. I wonder when they built the structures on the beach and if they are at all effective! I want to find a dinosaur bone on the beach. So I guess I will have to go back!

Going to the seaside

Last Friday we set off with a little back pack each, on our bikes. We parked the bikes at the train station. There are a few storeys of bike parking, all crammed to the rafters. I took a picture in the hopes that it would help me find my bike again at the end. Yeah, mine is just down that aisle...

We had to change trains in Norwich and thought we might as well have lunch there and see the sights. We did find a good pub, saw the castle, which is now an art gallery, and pop in to the cathedral. It's very old!

I've started looking at "Mary" on the memorial stones. This fellow was lucky enough to have two wives named Mary.

Back on the train and northward to Cromer. When we arrived the wind was howling and the sea was surging and we wondered what the heck we had done, but in the morning, the sun was out, the waves were calmer and all was well. There is a pier there, with a theatre, a lifeboat station, and even people fishing off the end. I have no idea if they ever caught anything!

We stopped by the church, which is enormous for such a small town. All flint, cut into cubes. Some flint buildings use flat flint, some use stones all the same size, some paint over the flint! There is blackish flint and whitish flint and golden flint.

After a quick look at the town, we went for a walk to Overstrand. On the way there we walked across the cliff tops, through a golf course, past a lighthouse.

We walked back along the beach. 

The tide very kindly was out at midday, so the wide, wide beach was available for walking. You can see the groins they built to hold the sand from eroding away down the coast, and there is a stile built over this one. With the tide way out, it was easier to walk around the groin than over an old, rickety, iron set of stairs.

At night we went to the "gambling den"... an amusement arcade where you can put 2p pieces in to a machine that slowly pushes the pile towards the edge, where they are supposed to all fall off into your bucket. It's so tempting! The prizes are right there, and even though you don't really want a little stuffed creature and a handful of 2p pieces, the urge to try just one more time is strong! We spent about a pound there and came away empty-handed. 

And the next day we walked in the opposite direction.

As promised

Here is my brown scarf. I have knit a bit more than 1/5 of the yarn I have, and am now into the second mini-skein.

I knit a bit on some trains, a bit in our hotel room looking out over the North Sea, and a tiny bit in the odd pub.

As you can see, the yarn looks totally different in different lighting! The orangey one is more true than the purply one.

I have so much to tell you about our time on the North Norfolk coast! Rocks! Churches! The sea! Stay tuned!

Yet more knitting

Today, November 10, I am actually away from my computer, and I set this up before I left Cambridge. I am at the seaside -- well, beside the North Sea! I hope the weather is holding. We were warned of wind and cold and rain, but the forecast was good before we left. Good for November, of course.

I couldn't lug my big old shawl around with me, complete with instructions on the computer, so I have taken this wee piece of simple knitting.

It is a Lacy Baktus in my Ally Pally yarn, and I started it at a pub knitting group a week or so ago.

If all goes according to plan, I will return tomorrow sometime with much more scarf made, and I can quickly show you that Monday evening, and be back to regular posting Tuesday. Touch wood!

A tantalizing tip

I am plugging away on my mystery shawl. I got side-tracked a while ago and so the end result is not a mystery to me any more; lots of people have finished their shawls by now.

In Clue 3, we make a bunch of these little round tips on the pointy bits.

I have got to the stage where now I just knit long, long rows.

I can't show you much more because my needle is not very long and the rows now have over 500 stitches, so the whole thing looks like this:

Queens' College

Earlier this week we went to look at Queens' College.

The buildings are arranged around courtyards, and in the first court is this sundial. It was missing its gnomon, so not useful at all for telling the time, but it had been freshly painted and I'm sure will be back in working order soon enough.

We left this courtyard via this old doorway. That window on the right is in the dining hall.

I thought the arch was wooden or painted, but it is just, I think, very dirty stone. I didn't poke at it to check, though.

There was a little peephole open so we could see into the dining hall. Not quite Hogwarts, is it? Each place on the lovely white cloth gets two wine glasses, water glass and teacup, and heaven knows how many forks and spoons.

The most recognizable thing at this college from the outside is the Mathematical Bridge. Don't let anyone tell you it is just held together by gravity. There are some pretty serious bolts there. (Apparently the handrail was installed when the Queen Mom once went to visit.)

This whole side of the building is being worked on. There were people up on top fixing an attic door.

I guess if your building is 500 years old, occasional repairs are necessary!

We walked along the river for a bit. It is hard to capture the glowy goldenness of the leaves!

Back down the other side to get a view of the bridge, and we can check Queens' off our list!