Blickling Hall and Thurne Sunset 8th June 2015

Today we are heading to Blickling Hall , a National Trust property and the terrible twosome can go in the outer estate around the lake.  its looking like another warm sunny day and we manage to park under a tree so we can go into the hall and leave the dogs for a short time :)

                                                    The front entrance ,  stunning!

 We are making our way around the outer estate , a big long narrow lake as is normal for these old estates.  the formal gardens are around the main house but no dogs obviously , So Chester should be ok ,  im sure he thinks he's human :D



          Ooops  Dont think Mol thought it was this deep as she has just jumped of the wooden staging!
                                     Im sure Chester must be thinking "stupid Mol"   haha

                After a nice walk we have left the beasts in the car and are going through the hall.

                                                   Wisteria still looks good on the walls.

 After going around the house , which was very interesting we are now taking a quick look around the formal garden , must get back to the dogs so cant spend too long here.
           Beautiful clipped formal Yew topiary with a large fountain and a sun dial on the path :)

                                           On the upper terrace next to the wisteria.

                                                    Peony flowers in the sunshine :)

Back to the car to get the Beasts and we are going back to the caravan before an evening walk around the Windpumps at Thurne :)

We arrive as the sun starts setting , it will hopefully set near to or behind the second mill , this is the first one as we walk along the staith heading for the main river.

 

The second mill is in view, and the clouds are looking quite interesting at the moment:)

                    I have set up my tripod on a wooden boat stage to shoot long exposures .
                                                 59 seconds f14  Lee Big stopper used.

                                          and 90 Seconds to show more cloud movement

                                                                           Phone pic

                                                  Zoomed   phone pic :)      HTC ONE9

                                                               Sunset at last , great rays :)

                                     After sundown as i walk back towards the staith.

                                             A last shot , not much colour left now .

                                            Shot with 100-400mm from near to the car.          

Norfolk pt2 Windpumps and Hummers 6/7 th june 2015

Its Saturday and time for a morning walk around How Hill , this is a skeleton mill called Boardmans Mill , built in 1897 .  this one has now been renovated since we where last here :)

                                                              Looks fabulous in the sunshine :)

Walking upstream ,  i am looking back to Boardmans in this image as we head towards another windpump.   

Here is  Turf Fen Windpump , its a great location for sunset images so will be back one evening this week.....

                A view of the beautiful thatched house on the How Hill estate near the car park :)

Time to go to Strumpshaw fen now to see if i can find any Swallowtails in the early afternoon sunshine , its blowing a gale so i doubt any will be flying.

             My first Dragon shot this year :)   a male Hairy dragonfly, taken along the railway line that borders the Fen,   after ages walking around , no sign of a Swallowtail, but as i get back to the car one flys overhead   Arghhhh  

 I give up , not going to find any so back to the van for dinner and the an evening swim for the Mutts!

       Back to the beach now , its really warm  and the Terrible twosome need a cooling off   lol

                                                            Come on  Hurry up ..........

                   its a beautiful evening on the beach , still warm sunny and they are happy :)

                                      Lovely early evening sun , great to be on the beach :)

Its early afternoon Sunday  , as we came over the dunes this morning from walking the dogs  i noticed loads of Painted Ladies that have just come over from Europe helped by the strong winds, they are feeding on the red valerian on the sheltered side of the dunes.
i love the yellow tree lupins , they are everywhere but have only noticed bumble bees feeding on the bright yellow flowers.

I have put on my long 100-400mm lens with an added 12mm extension tube to allow closer focusing. there is a fence preventing me getting close to the flowers, so will have to shoot from 4ft minimum.

                                                                   Take off..............

While shooting this Painted Lady a Hummingbird Hawk moth buzzes in to feed  Yay!       as i look around , another 3 or 4 are flying fast in between the flowers feeding sporadically.
      I rarely see these back home , so spend ages watching and trying to shoot them while hovering .

They are staying at least 4- 5 ft away , so i have to crop a fair bit for these pics ...  all are shot with manual focus on canon 5d mk2 with 100-400mm L +12mm extension tube.

There are quite a few Wall brown butterflies flitting around but not settling unfortunately , so i will concentrate on the Hummers :)

                                                             A nicely lit Painted Lady

Eventually i have noticed one coming to feed on a clump near the fence, so manage to shoot  filling more of the frame :)  

We have had a day of rest in the sun,   but enjoyable non the less , and i had a wonderful couple hours watching the Hummingbird hawk moths and butterflies .

Norfolk Holiday june 5th 2015 pt1

Its Holibobs time  Yay!

After loading the car,caravan and the "Terrible Twosome" ..............

 We are off on the long drive to Norfolk , to Sea Palling to be precise.   A small caravan site just behind the sand dunes about 4 mins walk to the beach, i think :)     After leaving at 8.15 in the morning, an easy drive down into Norfolk was nearly ended while Jan was driving down a narrow ish  main country road, a jcb style tractor with a big 3 ft fork on the front came from a small side road at a crossroads and literally stopped with the Forks right out  in the middle of  My side of the road!!!!!!!!!!   Tosser  ,  Jan narrowly missed them and the cars on the opposite side of the road somehow.     thought i might have been sliced in half :( 
After a half hour we arrived at the Kieth Farm caravan and camping club site and by 4 pm had everything set up :)  Time to go to the beach , the dogs have been stuck in the car for a long time today.      Part of the main central beach has a dog ban so we have to walk to the left a hundred yards before climbing up over the sand dunes to this beautiful series of sheltered bays and golden sand .

                                               Well.....  didn't take them long to get wet!

               Big breakwaters have sheltered the coastline producing huge semi circular beaches .

                                                                            Mad Spanner!

                                                                  Mol is swimming  :)

That's enough beach time , now after dinner we are going for a walk to watch the sunset , there is a derelict Windpump which can be walked to from Horsey,  around the mere and along the broad.   its only a short drive from here . The cloud is looking promising so far as we arrive at Horsey  , but as we start walking i notice thick cloud on the horizon as usual :(              I stop to shoot this sawfly on my phone as we walk along the mere path , and Mol startles a big animal which jumps into the ditch on our right hand side , i presume it must have been a Chinese water deer.

The old Brograve mill is still a long way away ,i can see it in the distance and i know we are not going to get there in time for sunset , but it appears to be setting behind a thick band of cloud and i am tempted to turn back , But Jan says as we are over half way there may as well go check it out for later in the week.     We carry on walking , the Terrible Twosome are tired so no bother on the lead :)
Eventually after 35 minutes we arrive at the Mill  , the dark cloud has stayed over to the left where the sun has set but the sky has coloured up in the distance  ,  so i manage to take this hdr  image about 20 minutes after sundown :)   

                        Just after i take this image i spot a tawny owl just behind the mill   Magic :)


                                                   The end of our first day in Norfolk :)