Work in progress

Happy Saturday

Raveningham Hall is a stately home situated a short distance from Beccles. As a country pile it has something of Chequers about it (not that I have ever been), very much in the Palladian style and requestioned for use in grace and favour fashion by the public at large. I went hoping to snap the gardens as I surmised they are open and that some sort of display is promised.

Arriving as I did mid morning I found that the honesty box was not open until later on so I took a sneak peak at the Alliums which were splendid and the herbaceous borders which were quite as enticing. On hearing the approaching foot steps of a member staff and not wanting a conversation about my photographic activities I snuck out and onto the church where I could well have been visiting a grave as were the folk I chanced upon in the early spring armed with daffodils.

‘Coals to Newcastle’ they observed that time as the church yard was incandescent with yellow blooms though not wanting to make acquaintance with their pooch we didn’t get to know each other any better.

I took a look around the estate, cattle grazing along side the quarrying and more promised at Haddiscoe, much to the nimbies’ fury. Yes the placards are up. I then drove back to the jewell of the Broads via that hamlet which is quite a favourite spot of mine. Bestowed by Nadine Dorries the last glance I took and with a fancy round tower in check. It is the Norfolk I grew up in, languorous and inviting, long summer afternoons and no great pressure. Peacocks strutting over bridleways and designated foot paths; an invitation to all to go to the pet shop  and stock up on saw dust and practice being a small or even a stall holder. Everyone can try even though you probably won’t win and no one will tell you frankly that you just didn’t buy enough raffle tickets. Earlier that week I had been and heard Diana Rackham give a talk about the Norfolk dialect via the organisation Fond – Friends of Norfolk Dialect. She seemed plausible as a latter day Whistler as in Whistler’s World of the EDP. We were sent on our way with a slice of Victoria sponge. I would like to report that it was from Oelrich’s but I think that they are long gone. We convened at the Willow Centre and it was quite the replacement for the Eaton Village Hall where I went to Brownies, yes Guiding for adults is where it is at.

I was no good at it in my youth -I couldn’t go into too much more detail without casting aspersions at a certain private school and I am sure that it is all water under the Cringleford Bridge now!

Marple July 2023