Journey of Words

Tag: Norfolk

  • Day 46

    Winds from the south-west are more amenable than most. They will make it easier for the swifts to get here. Swifts are the birds of summer for me. I look forward to their arrival in the next few days. In the interim swallows and martins are becoming more common now. I watched two martins gathering →

  • Day 45

    In a game of peek-a-boo, the Sun intermittently skips through the day behind cloud banks. By evening, the sky is clear and the garden is flooded with gold. The recent rain has done its work and the grasses, trees, flowers, herbs have all drawn strength from the dampened soil. Their increase in turgor pressure irons →

  • On the Marsh

    Lapwings squeal at crows Stealing eggs from open nests Fear-filled commotion . n.b. Dreadful scenes of larceny and conflict marking daybreak on 1st May. . CLP 1st May 2020 →

  • Day 43

    Light levels are lowered by the thick cloud cover. All the bright colours of spring flowers are needed now to attract pollen carriers. The warmth of the past week coaxed a greater variety of bees outside. They are most welcome. This morning along the coast road the marshes are witness to a fierce exchange between →

  • Day 42

    The road is just visible ahead. There is light in the sky topping off the highest clouds. The air is damp. There are puddles. There are no street lights here. It is dark enough for the birds to have stopped flying and to have ceased singing.  The main sounds are a few spots of rain on →

  • Day 41

    It wasn’t wet, nor cold. Partly sunny. I stepped out the back door. It was warmer out than in. I stepped back into the kitchen. I worked intermittently at my desk for the rest of the day, into mid-evening. I pause occasionally to watch the clever rat climb the top of the post stretch across →

  • Day 39

    The hedgerows are changing. The blackthorn’s fine white petals have thinned out and the dark spikes are being shaded out by greenery, as the hawthorn, the May Tree is dressing up in its finery. Where the plant is a tree, it shines out from copses and hedgerows. In the shade of the hedge, it is →

  • Day 38

    I go up the lane where I first recognised a horsetail sprouting in a verge many years ago. Then so rare to my eyes and now so common. Are there more of them, or is it my awareness of them that makes them more obvious now? It was a strange plant to my eye then, →

  • Day 37

    I am out after supper. The light is fading earlier than previous evenings because of the spreading high-cloud cover. Venus is high in the west. Everything is calmer. The wind dropping, the sea smoother, the air warmer. Birds have settled into their pairs. Nests are built. A swan sits on a massive mesh of reeds; →

  • Day 35

    Cycling west along the coast road to the next village this morning took about half the time of any previous trip. The east wind pushed me along as I pedalled furiously to take full advantage. It was thrilling to travel so fast without wind rushing in my ears, without battling to make progress. It reminded →