I know, what a novelty. Last week we were away in Norfolk staying in a beautiful, but tiny, cottage close to Holt. More on the cottage another day, it was stunning. But then again, so is Holt - it’s one of my favourite Norfolk towns. We’ve only been to Norfolk three times this year - thanks 2020 - but hadn’t managed to get over to Holt, until this visit. It has some great shops, and it felt almost decadent to be in them, looking around, albeit with face coverings and social distancing, of course.

So today, join me for a wander around the shops, and see what caught my eye.

Holt has plenty of small yards, which are packed full of shops to explore, and we started in Follyology, a new-to-us shop, both of us drawn in by the garden ornaments. The wall art below was very well strategically placed, and caught our eyes. It is stunning, and realistically priced at about a hundred pounds ( I think from memory - sometimes it’s good not to know, or remember, isn’t it?)

From what was on display outside I was keen to see more of the shop inside. That didn’t disappoint either. It was full of colour.

As well as items which I’d not considered before, like these pretty ceramic teaspoons,

Downstairs there were homewares, upstairs clothes and accessories. And it was the latter, on a table in the centre that was my focus, with a number of decorated velvet pouches.

I resisted at the time, but resistance was futile and a day or so later returned to purchase one of the small pouches - you might have already seen which one on Instagram?

Feeling more normal, despite the masks, next up was a wander around the nearby streets and yards, and a pop in to Bakers and Larner’s food hall for something for tea. Another fabulous shop, which seems to have a never-ending series of departments, though in Covid-19 times there are designated entrance and exits, as you’d expect, but which made me realise I knew more of the shop’s layout than I realised.

Around the town I spotted a couple of penguins in one of the shop windows. Clearly not real ones, but they were rather cute. I think MOH was glad these weren’t the things we popped back to Holt for.

Well, not that time anyway.

Maybe my attraction to Holt is its colourfulness, maybe its quirkiness, who knows?

But what was clear was that it felt good To be back, even just for a short while.