Cley NWT!

I am on holiday for two weeks! I don't normally have holiday at this time of the year, but when I was off sick with bereavement/depression, this was over the period when I had lots of holiday booked. So, I have 5 weeks holiday to take before the end of March, otherwise I'll lose it. I have another week in February and another 2 weeks at the end of March. Normally I only have a day or two left!!!

I have been very busy doing jobs over the last few days. There are so many things to do, I don't know which way to turn to be honest. Our parent's house is not going on the market as soon as we wanted it to, for various reasons and this is stressing Vivien and I out to the limit! I'll let you all know when its going up for sale. I needed to escape today and it was a good day to be out with lots of sunshine, blue skies and no rain!

I headed to Cley for the first time this year and headed straight to the NWT Visitor Centre for one of their scrumptious hot cheese scones – I can't remember the last time I had one! It was very peaceful sitting here, looking out over the marshes and the sea beyond – it was good to be back and good for the soul. It was nice to meet a concerned blog follower in the VC, just as I was leaving.

East Bank – I ambled along here with scope, bins and camera and reminisced – my parents met on this famous bank. I think about them both daily, they are constantly in my thoughts – their faces etched in my mind. It was such a beautiful day, it felt like there should be some Spring migrants! I didn't do too badly for a short winter's day though – on 'The Serpentine' there were good numbers of Teal, Pochard, Lapwings, a Gadwall I noted, several Curlew, Shelduck, Starlings, Carrion Crows, Jackdaw, Heron, Little Egret, Redshanks, Mute Swans and two Marsh Harriers were flying over the reedbeds. I spent a while watching the sea and it felt good to be out. Cley is my favourite place for watching the waves cascade and crash onto the shingle. But, aside from a few gulls, there were no birds on the sea or flying past of interest. There were large numbers of whelk egg cases on the shingle I noted. I walked east between the shingle ridge and Arnold's Marsh and found a beautiful pair of Stonechats (unringed) perched on vegetation high on the ridge. They vanished before I could obtain any decent pictures. I headed back to my car and then headed to Salthouse.

Met up with John Furse in Beach Road! We walked out to Gramborough Hill, where I saw another pair of Stonechats which was nice and a Skylark was seen. Three Snow Buntings were sunning themselves on the shingle ridge, just east of the 'hill' and I managed to get a few record shots. A Redshank was in the pool just west of the hill, as we walked back our cars and a couple of Pied Wagtails flew overhead in Beach Road. Nothing else of note, but then I didn't expect to see too much today. I wanted to go to Coastguards and add the Glaucous Gull to my mini day list, but I had to go to Bakers and Larners in Holt, so left around 3.40pm. Said hello to Andy W. when I was in Holt for a few minutes (he works in the town).

I enjoyed my day out, but looking forward to Spring and lighter evenings! I lost 6.5lbs in my first weigh-in with WW on Monday and yes I have counted the 'points' for the cheese scone today! The weather is getting colder by the end of the week with possible snow forecast. My birthday is on the last day of my holiday – there always seems to be snow on my birthday!

Some readers have highlighted that my posts are not linking properly to Twitter. It was such a long time ago that I linked my posts automatically, that I can't even find out how I did that when I investigated this evening! But, until I find the solution, I will simply link all my posts to Twitter manually, which only takes a second to do anyway.