English Tourism Week runs from 10th – 18th March encouraging Brits to take a break in England rather than going abroad. Events in Norfolk and Norwich during the week include:
- an ‘Early Risers’ wildlife walk at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen on Saturday 10th March from 07.00 – 09.00 looking for marsh harriers, Chinese water deer, bitterns and otters
- a ‘Dawn Otter Spotting’ guided canoe trail at South Walsham Broad on Sunday 18th March from 06.00 – 08.30 with The CanoeMan
- ‘Swallows and Amazons’ at Norwich Theatre Royal from 13th – 17th March – a dramatisation of Arthur Ransome’s popular novel
- Norwich Fashion Week – events in and around the city centre, 8th – 15th March
- ‘Open Day’ – Thurne Windpump – unique opportunity to see the workings of the mill Sunday 11th March 2-4pm
Our ’50 something’ Aga has finally gone to be recycled after serving us well for the last 16 years. It had become a little temperamental in the last few months, getting somewhat overheated from time to time so we took the decision to replace it with a new model which was installed a couple of weeks ago. We hope the shiny new one will serve us equally well.
We had a brief walk at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen recently and were lucky enough to see a bittern on the wing just as we were leaving. Around 18 sightings had been recorded on the day we were there, making Strumpshaw one of the best places in the country to see this elusive heron.
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The recent snow brought with it lots of tracks so we know a fox was in the garden. Lots of bird tracks as well, although they are more tricky to identify. The cold weather has brought lots of birds to the garden looking for food and we’ve seen a songthrush, lots of great, blue, coal and long-tailed tits as well as our usual blackbirds and dunnocks, jackdaws and chaffinches at our feeder. We even found a wagtail in the Conservatory one morning – highly unusual as we’ve never actually seen one in the garden!
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