Brancaster beach

This morning Gavin had some zoom meetings for work so after breakfast Xena and I walked to Brancaster beach. I noticed so many butterflies in the wild flowers growing on the salt marshlands, far more than I see at home. I read that swallowtails and purple emperor butterflies are found in Norfolk, they are not ones you see every day.

When I got to the salt marsh near the beach it was covered in sea lavender, I don't remember it being so prolific last year. I also read that Norfolk gets matted sea lavender which is quite uncommon. See extra of Xena standing in the sea lavender. It was a good 2 hour walk there and back, and I got home and had a coffee. Gavin had finished his meetings but had gone to see if he could start the motor on the boat - he could not so it must go in for repairs, hopefully it's only something simple like new spark plugs that are needed. 

We had lunch at home and then in the afternoon we went to walk from Thornham out to the beach at Holme-next-the-sea. By now it was so windy, and I forgot my hair band to tie up my hair so I made a hair tie from a plastic doggy poo bag (obviously an unused one!). Again there were so many wild flowers and sea lavender growing on the salt marshes, it was looking so pretty. 

We stopped off at a collection of shops and food eateries at Thornham called Drove Orchards and had a wander around. We decided to try an ice cream from the local ice cream shop there and as I cannot have dairy I tried the vegan avocado and raspberry ice cream (no dairy in that. It sounds disgusting but oh my word, it was the best ice cream I have ever had. Gavin tried it and he too was very surprised at how delicious it was and said that next time he would definitely order that too.

Back home again I had an doctors video appointment about my neck. I wanted to check that I did not need an X ray for it but the doctor said it sound like typical degeneration of joints in the neck and explained why it is so painful when I wake up in the morning. I have to keep up with my stretches and strengthening exercises, and most importantly to keep moving - not to sit for more than 45 minutes a time. Apparently sitting is the worst thing for a neck complaint. How I am going to cope sitting in the car for 11 hours when we drive to Switzerland on Saturday is starting to worry me.

We have had no rain since we have been here, but tomorrow rain is forecast. We go home tomorrow, it has been a wonderful few days here.