Colourful beach huts and houses

My view is that you can’t beat a bit of colour, and that’s just what we got on a walk along the beach recently. There were pastels and stripes, patterns and bold colours, every which way, beach huts and houses, and today here’s just some of them, in case you need a burst of colour - I’m pretty sure that whatever colour you want, you’ll find here somewhere.

Whether it’s pastel stripes, or the more bold bronzed effect next door.

Maybe something more subtle, with a blast of teal topped off with an orange crab? Or a more creative approach with this geometric pattern of green, yellow and pink, which despite it’s zaniness is actually one of my favourites.

It was great to look along the row of beach huts and get that blast of colour, the blue skies helped too.

But it wasn’t just the beach huts. The houses which edged the beach walk were getting in on the colour palette too. I liked how they didn’t match, but didn’t clash either.

Further along things got a little bit more flamboyant, which some pebble art incorporated into the bay window. The pink railings were a winner for me, the drainpipe less so though (in case you were wondering)

Each of the pebble art in this row of houses depicted a different fresco, which meant I walked along this stretch of beach path looking left, instead of towards the sea, or even ahead. Buy you can see why, can’t you?

We walked to the end of the path, which had turned to boardwalk somewhere along the way, and ended up retracing our steps for the last section, before heading inland to return to the town. As we did the weather started to turn, but even so this pretty passionflower shone, and reminded me I no longer have one of these - another to add to my plant list!

Even the now greying skies couldn’t detract from the pretty-coastelness of the white painted fence and clap-boarded house. Just like our walk in the woods more recently, this trip to the coast filled a longing, I wasn’t even sure I had.

A moody sky at Sunny Hunny

I’m catching up with some photo editing and these moody sky photos from last month and a visit to my parents, the first since March and since lockdown has been and overstayed its welcome. As there’s storms forecast this week, it seems appropriate to share these now. We may have already had the storms, they could be happening now, or maybe they’re still on their way. If the weather forecasters don’t know, then it’s anyone’s guess isn’t it?

Part of heading to the coast is to see the sea, and as you can see the beaches aren’t replicating the scenes from the south coast. Partly, I’m sure, down to that sky. There were many more people walking along the promenade than I’m used to being around, and initially I balked but everyone was giving people space, but even so we headed to the emptier end of town, stopping at the lookout, well to lookout.

Looking out to sea, over the famous cliffs and trying to work out if the wind farm was visible (only just!).

As ever, it wasn’t long before a couple of plants distracted me. The pink of the valerian and the egg yolk yellow of the santolina, which is another of those plants I should have in my garden. One day.

We headed away from the crowds, skirting alongside the bowling green where the stripes of the neatly manicured grass the clouds somehow looked more dramatic. And we weren’t wrong. As we reached the cafe, just at the end of this green, the rain started. So there really was nothing else for it, an ice cream at the seaside too. We were trapped, you understand.

But thankfully just long enough to eat the ice cream - it was almost as if it was meant to be. Just like the fact that a Norfolk post without lavender can make you question if it’s Norfolk at all, a coastal walk without an ice cream. Yes, exactly.

But really the dramatic skies were quite something. And I was happy to admire them more, from the comfort of being safely indoors, and pretty dry too.

Let’s hope I’m as fortunate with the storms that may (or may not) be on their way.

Not going: On a coastal walk from Colyton Fishacre

I thought I’d share another “not going to” post this week, and I’ve a feeling it could become a bit of a series, depending on how long we’re in lockdown for and realistically, how long it takes more normal life to resume. So for this post, we’re not going on a coastal path walk, in Devon, where we didn’t go last weekend. If that makes sense.

These are actually photos from our visit to Devon in 2015, but quite honestly the memories seem more recent than that. And despite the photo below it was actually a nice day, and not quite as grim as this photo suggests. Though I think I prefer to describe this as atmospheric, rather than grim.

We’d visited the National Trust’s Colyton Fishacre, which probably has to be one of their strangest named properties, surely? MOH’s aunt volunteers there and it’s one of the places we regularly visit, but it was the first time we nipped out the gate onto the coastal path. Once we’d seen the view, we weren’t sure why.

I’m not a huge fan of walking too close to the edge, and it’s rare that you’ll find me peering over the edge, but with gorgeous bracken edged views like this I’m more than happy with that. Though I remembered if I stood on tiptoes, the yacht came into view.

And while the views to the sea were great, it really was the plants that were closer that held my attention.

And given my previous comments about being close to the edge, you can imagine my thoughts about this. Yes I know it’s not on the edge at all, but I could still fall. MOH who’s used to this irrational logic when it comes to heights and edges, just helps me along, and we did make it down the path you can see heading off into the distance.

But I do have my limits, and the were soon to be reached. Rocks like the one covered in lichen are much more preferable than heading closer to the edge.

Yes, I am not in the picture below. Not even close.

Even looking at it now makes me more anxious, but the honeysuckle is much more my thing.

Yes, I’m definitely more of a hedgerows kind of girl, I’ll save the edges for those of you that don’t seem to mind them!