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.

pastel shades beach hut
A crab at number 11

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.

a pale pink beach hut with geometric pattern in greens and yellows on the shutters

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

bold and jewelled blue, purple and green beach huts
pink turquoise and green boldly coloured beach hut

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.

A row of pastel coloured houses fronting the beach

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)

pink bay fronted house with scaffolding

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?

orange and blue houses together

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!

a passionflower and fruit clambering over fences
a look back at the rooftops above a white painted fence/house

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?

Looking out at the lookout in Hunstanton

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.

Moody skies over the beach

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

The red cliffs at hunstanton

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.

valerian growing on the coast
coastal santolini

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.

stripes of the bowling lawn and still the grey skies

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.

norfolk lavender bordering the path

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.

And yes, that moody sky meant rain

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

PoCoLo

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.

scenic views of Devon's coastline

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.

a misty devon coastline

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.

Bracken bordering the cliff path
getting braver and peeking further to the edge

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

blue skies and cliff top walks in devon

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.

a path towards the sea - not likely!

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.

admiring the lichen instead

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

happy watching from afar

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

plenty to see without going to the edge
hedgerows in devon

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!

“TheGardenYear