Interiors gems in Burnham Market

Burnham Market is one of those pretty, traditional Norfolk villages, with a green and plenty of shops ideal for browsing but few parking spaces and plenty of visitors. Even this weekend it took a little while to get a space on the green, which is somewhere I rarely get to park, especially in the summer months. As we arrived the blue skies turned dark, the rain that was threatening arrived and luckily a space materialised almost right outside the hat shop, which was the purpose of our visit.

This pretty village has one of the best hat shops I know, and the plan was to take a look to see what they had to get inspiration for my niece’s wedding in May. As it turned out, as you’ll have seen yesterday, I ended up buying one because it seems even wedding guests have a moment when they know it’s the one. We made quite an entrance into the shop as when the rain paused for a moment, that was so it could turn to hailstones instead. You’d never know it from the photo below though, taken not that much after.

With the unexpected hat purchase safely stowed in the dry of the car, we had a wander around the village to see what’s changed since our last visit, and to see what’s hot in Norfolk interiors. So off we went up an alley and into a small courtyard just off the main street where we found Boudicca Designs, with plenty of cushions and mugs which caught my eye.

THE MUGS TOP LEFT SAY: NORMAL FOR NORFOLK & BOOTIFUL… EXACTLY

While you might think those mugs are out of place, there was plenty of stylish and matching homewares. These orange background matching mugs and lampshade were a favourite, initially I thought they were foxes but looking again I think they’re more dog-like.

It was the settle though behind these that really drew my attention - which thanks to my new Salvage Hunters’ obsession, I know it’s a settle - isn’t it great? The colours, the material and while not authentic, it’s something that would work well in many country and even city properties.

In one of the newer shops, which I don’t seem to be able to find the name of now, there were plenty of muted colours with white prints and some light hearted quotes, bringing a smile to my face as surely life is better in flip flops? I’ve always said Norfolk has big skies and those cards would look great in a frame, I think.

I’m not sure about the wetsuit card though.

I’m sure though that there’s definitely Norfolk time. There’s most certainly Norfolk speed on the roads, it’s about 22mph and is quite alien coming from London where everything moves much faster than the speed limit, it’s hard to readjust and so you find yourself waiting where you could have pulled out.

I’ve found another Norfolk shop with some fabulous candles, who’d have thought Norfolk would be so candle rich?

Another shop that’s always worth a visit is Uttings of Burnham, it’s deceptively large and has a mix of functional and frivolous. From the outside it looks a traditional hardware shop, fronted with a fruit and vegetable shop. It’s full of wonders though, on this visit while we were looking at these gorgeous plates there was another lady in the shop was in there looking for loo rolls.

I fell for the Octopus plate, and it would look fabulous on my dresser. I didn’t even get as far as looking at the price before MOH chipped in with, where wouldI put it, I wouldn’t mind - but he liked it too!

Reflecting on my week #74

This week just gone has been one of those that I’ve been building up to for a while and it didn’t disappoint.  You’ll have seen my pom pom sheep on Thursday to coincide with University Mental Health Day, and as well as the craft sessions there were plenty of other things going on.  The craft session I hosted with a colleague ended up doubling in length and was by all accounts a success.  Students and staff turned up to learn to knit and crochet, as well as to sit and start a square, leaving having made ‘a thing’.  Bemused senior managers stopped by to see what was going on and everyone who joined us for some crafting was pleasantly surprised to leave clutching their new needles or hook and a ball of wool, with the good intentions to carry on and learn more from YouTube.  There’s even the potential for  staff to get together occasionally at lunchtimes, which is something that’s promising - it’s almost like a secret club has been unearthed and I’m sure we’ll uncover some other crafters along the way too.

The lead up to any large scale event - at work, or home - is always a bit anxiety-inducing isn’t it?  And this was no different, but people came out and turned up to what they said they would so, generally, just phew.  Our challenge now is to build on this and make sure that it isn’t a one off thing, and quite frankly it’s too important a subject for it to be that,  thankfully there’s plenty of people at my university that think that way too.

These photos are from my walk home through Greenwich Park on Monday, I’d left work early for a doctors appointment and it felt a rare treat to be enjoying the park at this time of day, and I suspect nature knew I’d need a calming influence before waiting for my turn to come, just thirty minutes after it was scheduled.  That’s the thing with appointments at the doctors, you never really expect them to be on time, but that’s not something you can bank on, and arrive late either, is it?  In the end I could have left work on time and arrived before I was called, but then again I wouldn’t have had the time to take these pictures.

It was almost farcical though when I saw the nurse. I was there for a smear test, never pleasant but essential, and she asked why I was there as I wasn’t due a test even though the doctor had said mine was overdue.  I mean, essential though they are, they’re not the kind of thing you’d turn up for out of the blue, are they? And with a welcome like this coupled with the news that the doctor wasn’t correct because “as you’re over 50 the tests are every five years” it’s no wonder that smear test attendance is at its lowest ever.

After a lengthy discussion, where it turned out I was in fact overdue (and therefore the doctor did know what he was talking about) as there should have been a test in 2017, the year I turned 50.  Without a letter to prompt making an appointment I’d unsurprisingly not made one, there was the assumption that turning 50 in the year a test was due was the problem. But because my last test was completed in 2014, in the end the test was almost grudgingly carried out.  

As I said, just the preamble anyone needs before any test... I told you the gods had sent me through the park for a reason! 

We dashed up to Norfolk after work Friday evening, throwing MOH’s bike in the back of the car in the hope the weather forecast might be wrong. It wasn’t. His bike didn’t get an outing after all, but unable to stay inside MOH went for a walk in the wet, windy weather arriving back more than a little damp - the pockets of his coat were still wet as we arrived home last night. Nice.

The weekend wasn’t a right off though, we had a lovely meal out in The Lifeboat Inn at Thornham, one of the best restaurants we’ve discovered up there.  Unusually all four of us opted for fish main courses, and even weirder I had a fish starter too, even I didn’t recognise myself!

There was successful wedding hat shopping too. My eldest niece is getting married in May, and a new hat was bought, I’m still working on the rest of the outfit, but the hat is now the lynchpin. It might not be the most conventional way to buy a hat, or plan an outfit, but there you go.  

There’s a fabulous hat shop in Burnham Market, called The Hat Shop, which I knew would be the place to try, and if I had no success here, then I’d be struggling so may need a complete rethink. It’s the sort of place you could never imagine, but has hats of all shapes, colours and sizes, and is quite something. I tried on many and was rather taken with several, all on an Alice-band-but-larger-than-fascinators including a lime green slanty oval one that completely clashed with the outfit I have in mind, a navy velvet creation which I think I upset the shop lady with by wearing the wrong way round, and insisting it was more comfortable pointing left than to the right which she assured me was “how it was designed”. Well, designed that way or not I preferred it the wrong way round and if I’d have bought it would have worn it that way too, as the band was way more comfortable and placed the hat where I wanted it on my head. 

I didn’t buy that one though as I’ve already got a navy hat, and velvet didn’t seem very Spring-like and would mean an outfit rethink. Instead I bought another coral hat (yes, I know I’ve already got one in that colour already) it’s a deeper colour though, I think, and quite different to the one I have and just kind of worked with my hair colour and style. 

WEDDING HAT: SNEAK PEEK

And so, as it kind of worked, I bought it. Eek! I’ll be checking it against the outfit in daylight today, and will hopefully amaze myself with my shopping and colour matching skills. That or be on the lookout for something Spring-like that matches my new hat.

There’s plenty of shops to browse around in Burnham Market, and in one I spotted this sign which is my ‘de rigeur’ mode for text messages, so apologies if I owe you a text response, but please know I’ve read your text and replied in my head, even if I haven’t got around to doing it for real yet...

Petrol at Creake Abbey

We’ve popped up to Norfolk this weekend, but sadly not for the weather. We’ve had all sorts, along with the what seems like obligatory wind in this part of the world, including hailstones, rain and sun. The good thing about the rain is that the wind stops, small blessings hey?

This photo of the fabulously vintage petrol pump is one from our visit here earlier in the year, and is just around the corner of the building which is home to all of those galvanised pots at Creake Abbey. I’m a fan of its patina and the layers of paint which have no doubt built up over the years.

It’s true, they just don’t make them like this any more - and that’s probably just as well, but it’s good to see that some of these have survived. There’s a couple of petrol pumps in St Mawes down in Cornwall, which from memory where red (the photo in the post is black and white). Looking at these again they seem slightly newer than this one!