Norfolk | Guy Portman's Blog

A Trip Away

Oct 01 2021

Last week I went to Norfolk for three nights. Little did I know on departing that a national petrol crisis was poised to begin. Fortunately, I was able to secure enough petrol to make the 150+ mile trip home. Not planning to go anywhere until the petrol fiasco ends. That may not be happening anytime soon despite the government’s claims to the contrary. Anyway, back to the trip.

New location; same animals. Captured these roe in a fen field first thing in the morning.

Trigga and a female viszla we came across on a walk.

A mute swan.

Time for a swim.

Back in the day whale bones, bones from slaughterhouses, and even human bones were ground down into bonemeal at the Narborough Bone Mill. The bonemeal was used for fertiliser.

Don’t believe me. You can read all about it here.

A mediaeval church in Narborough.

You can’t beat meat from the butcher, especially not this butcher.

Burgers from the butcher.

I wasn’t the only who tucked in.

If you come across any petrol let me know, I’ve only got eight miles left. For those of you who use the metric system, that’s not a lot. Have a great weekend.

Pastures New

May 21 2021

As is the case with near on everyone, I haven’t been anywhere in ages due to the bug that’s been doing the rounds. Last weekend that all changed. I travelled up the east side of the country to the county of Norfolk. It was a long overdue change of scene and proved to be a welcome break from typing and television. Much of the time was spent walking. Saturday’s walk entailed traversing several fords.

A hauntingly beautiful tree.

Despite the omnipresent threat of a downpour, we were only drizzled on a few times.

How’s this for a close up shot of a wild rabbit. Good thing the dog had gone on ahead. Had it not, bunny would likely have bolted long before I got this close.

The entrance to a medieval monastery.

And here are the ruins of the monastery.

A tranquil village at the halfway point of the walk.

On the Sunday, I went to ‘The Washes’. In the winter they are a flooded haven for migratory wildfowl. At this time of year farmers graze their animals here. There is something disconcerting about being followed by cattle. I’ve heard several horror stories recently of people being trampled by them. I managed to make it through the herd unscathed.

Trigga, having smelt a pheasant hiding in the long grass.

Since my childhood many decades ago, I have always wanted to walk to ‘The Iron Bridge’.

Here is a picture of yours truly under the bridge.

The Week – the good, the bad & the ugly

Jul 26 2019

Another week bites the dust. I have just come back from a break in The Fens, and am now back at the grindstone trying to make up for lost time. For what it is worth I have categorised the week gone by into three categories.

The Good: There are few things as cathartic as being in the countryside. Here is a photo of a freshly cut Fens field taken shortly before the heatwave began in earnest.

More good … The local pub has Moretti on tap, and the butcher is of exceptional quality.

I wasn’t the only one enjoying The Fen food.

The Bad: I never thought I would live to see the day when it was 30C at 19:30 in Norfolk. I only remember a few days ever reaching that temperature when I was kid. Many will no doubt disagree, but it’s too hot for the UK in my humble opinion. And with the heat came the flies. There were so many on Monday, I could have been in Somalia.

More Bad … Sales of Necropolis and Sepultura (first two instalments in my black comedy trilogy) have been non-existent this past week. They had been performing okay of late. Hopefully this will be rectified soon. That’s called positive thinking.

The Ugly: My friends beat me in our air rifle target competition. Although I’ve had no practice of late it annoyed me immensely, especially considering we were using my gun.