A Change of Climate
April 21, 2018
There’s quite a difference between the weather in the UK compared to the south of Spain where so many Brits spend their holiday time or retirement, and having come directly from Arcos and Seville to the south of England we can fully attest to that difference. I would guess that spring has been considerably delayed by the unusually harsh winter and early spring as a consequence of the “beast from the east” and the “little beast” that brought rare snow to so many places in the UK this year. For the first week or so it has been mostly dull and grey with sporadic glimpses of sunshine to tease us, which has made my now customary skyscape as the opening picture a little more difficult. The plants don’t seem to mind though and the daffodils in particular are in full swing, growing wild, as well as in almost every garden wherever we go, while the first of the bluebells are adding to this gorgeous display.
Having so far visited the Brighton area and the historic town of Hastings in the south (where isn’t historic in Ye Olde England?) we made a quick stop off at Canterbury before making our way further north to Suffolk and Norfolk with its famous Broads National Park, an expanse of canal-crossed, sometimes marshy, flat land that include within its borders farmland and even the city of Norwich. Compare the images from Norwich’s cathedral (which is the second tallest in Britain) to those of the Catholic cathedrals in Spain and I have to admit I prefer the less Gothic and more understated and slightly warmer feeling of the Anglican one which is still vast but less “gold plated”. Not that I’m really into churches and cathedrals at all but they do seem to keep cropping up in my photos! And a few castles too.
Then there are Suffolk’s “wool villages” which made their wealth at the height of the wool boom in the 15th century and have interesting wood framed houses and imposing stone churches that have changed little over the intervening centuries. A part of the Harry Potter movies was even made in the medieval village of Lavenham plus the weather turned a little for the better too. The higgledy piggledy nature of the place brings to mind gingerbread houses and maybe a little Shakespeare as well.
Back in Norfolk we went for a walk on part of the Wherryman’s Way which follows the Yare River through a grassy landscape with old (and restored) wind pumps and boats and reeds and along a few country lanes too. It was rather misty and drizzly as can be seen in the photos, but that makes for more atmosphere and it is after all, not atypical weather for here.
Of course there are also a few additions to the recent gallery in the menu on the left. I should have more from our next stop Devon and one of my favourite places in this part of the world, Dartmoor, in another week or two.