Sky Blue Sky

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who took the time to leave birthday greetings for me on Monday. Mrs S & I have just returned from a splendid few days traversing the highways and byways of North Norfolk, conscientiously ensuring that each of the three predictions in my last post came to fruition - we walked lots, we ate lots and we drank quite a bit too.

The trouble with walking in North Norfolk, particularly out towards the coast, is that it's very tempting to take hundreds of photos of, essentially, absolutely nothing. The landscape is wide and open, the skies are vast and there's nary a soul around. It's an awe inspiring neck of the woods to be let loose in, but attempting to capture the sheer scale of it all with my humble point and press is, frankly, a waste of time. That didn't stop me having a go of course.

Jeff Tweedy - Sky Blue Sky

We Could Leave Right Now

I'm writing a little ahead of time, but, all being well, by the time you read this Mrs S & I will be enjoying a short break in deepest North Norfolk. Today I turn 58 and the remote self-catering cabin we discovered a few years back has become something of an annual birthday retreat for us. I'm no psychic, but while we're away I can foresee lots of walking, lots of eating and, who knows, perhaps even a little drinking. We're looking forward to the break. The pace of our lives has increased considerably in recent weeks, so it'll be good to recharge for a few days before we pile back into it again.

Here's a band that I'm surprised to find hasn't put in an appearance on this blog before today. After Bob Dylan, I've probably seen Oysterband in concert more times than anyone else. In fact I'm long enough in the tooth to have attended both their 20th & 25th anniversary shows and just before Christmas I caught a date on their 40th anniversary tour - ouch! That means that when these guys started playing together, I was but a mere 18 year-old whippersnapper.

Oysterband - We Could Leave Right Now

Memoria

A few more photographic memories of our short holiday in North Norfolk.

This is Bruce. He immediately made us feel very welcome on his patch and became a proper little poser whenever a camera appeared.

Fred Astaire. We stayed in a secluded cabin, the roof of which Fred and Ginger (not pictured) treated as their dance floor each morning. Fred appears to have removed his tap shoes for this photo.

There were no street lights in the remote village we called home, so we were treated to some glorious late evening skies. 

We saw a wide variety of birds on our travels, from tiny Wrens to the mighty Marsh Harriers that seemed to be everywhere. I spent much of the time gazing through my binoculars at the bird-life rather than the camera lens, but while walking down a long country lane in the blistering heat, we encountered this Chaffinch who showed no inclination to fly away, at least until he'd finished his song.

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Murcof - Memoria

Up Hill and Down Dale

North Norfolk. Vast empty beaches, big skies and....hills? Yup, North Norfolk has its fair share of leg-burners, we know, we walked a few of 'em. They may not stack up to much in comparison to those in Singing Bear's gloriously mountainous neck of the woods, but the long inclines certainly take it out of you after a few hours on the go. Luckily, there was always a cold beer on the porch of our cabin to look forward to at the end of each day, before we rested up and hit the road for more of the same the following morning.

Song of the Sea

When having a bit of a rummage for a clutch of CD's to accompany our brief trip to the North Norfolk coast, my hand happened to fall on a couple of Tunng albums, including the 2005 debut, 'Mother's Daughter and Other Songs'. It's on this LP that you'll find the gorgeous and appropriate 'Song of the Sea'.

Out Of Town

By the time you read this, Mrs S and I should, all being well, be in the middle of a short stay on the North Norfolk coast. Our destination is only an hour and a bit away from Swede Towers, but rather than coming and going, we thought we'd snag a B&B for a couple of nights and make a break of it. The plan, as always, is for a bit of walking, a bit of eating and, who knows, maybe even a bit of drinking, though these days anything more than a couple of glasses of wine at one sitting sends us quickly on our way to snoozeville - lightweights!

My CD collection is still (still!) stored away in the spare room following our move in 2011, but whenever we travel I always have a fish about in the boxes and grab a few albums for the road. For this trip I've also lovingly hand-crafted a couple of brand new CDr compilations, the first in absolutely years. Here's a great live version of a tune that made the tracklist of one of those compilations, 'Hinterland' by Lonelady, a firm favourite round these parts since its release in March.