The Shopkeeper's Wife: Big skies

Just back from a lovely weekend in North Norfolk. We stayed in Burnham Overy Staithe. All the villages up there are so well kept and the coast is just stunning. I'm always tempted to complain about the seaside up here because I can't help but think of the sheltered coves and gorgeous beaches in the westcountry where I've spent a lot more of my time over the years. I think this is because the North Sea is often so grey and uninviting (plus Aldeburgh beach is all pebbles!). But the North Norfolk coast was just stunning this weekend. Perfect beach weather in my opinion, sunny enough to get your shades on but cold enough to need to wrap up a bit and keep the crowds away. Although I have to say that Brancaster beach this morning was a tad windy and Grace and I both wished we had no hair like Daddy!!

Saturday at Holkham beach was so clear and calm it was wonderful. A big trek down there from the car park though and no public conveniences which for a 7-months pregnant lass was quite a challenge! Worth it though.

Sunday was quite grey so we took Grace to a brilliant indoor play area on the seafront at Hunstanton. Mummy got to sit and drink coffee whilst Daddy clambered through tunnels, into ball pits and down rope swings with Grace. Then we drove over to Holt so James could do a bit of business research although it turned out that suprisingly most places in Holt seem to close on a Sunday.

Today we popped to Burnham Market to return the keys to the cottage. This is a great village but boy does it get busy, even at this time of year. We then went to Brancaster beach which we'd never been to before - it is such a huge expanse of sand and due to the windy conditions we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Then it was a pub lunch and a drive back home.

Our cottage was nice but we wouldn't stay there again - overpriced for what we got I think. It also took us 24hours to unwind when we got up there as we were all over-tired from a busy week. But by Saturday pm we were in holiday mode, if only we'd had a few more days!

Here are a few pics from the weekend. My favourite is James's Barbour pose at the end, perhaps this will be the new homepage image for www.ocbutcher.co.uk :)