Walked to Thornham Point this morning in hope of finding some migrants, but only managed to find a Wheatear, 2 Stonechats, 2 Reed Buntings, Linnets and a skulking LBJ which turned out to be a Hedge Sparrow! A beautiful but muggy day – it was far hotter than I had expected. Walking back along the beach, several Swallows skimmed over me heading south. Oystercatchers, Sanderlings, 2 Curlew and gulls were feeding along the shoreline. Lots of Golden Plover, Black-tailed Godwits, Avocets, gulls, 4 Snipe flew over, Greylag Geese etc on the freshmarsh. Looking into the sun in the morning, so not best viewing conditions, plus I had lost patience with the heat, so didn't hang around. Several Whinchats on the hedgerow that runs west across the field, opposite the vistor centre/main path and a very chocolatey coloured Common Buzzard sat on the fence line. Chatted to Sue B. for a short while and then left.
It was too hot to carry on really, but had a quick walk from the village car park at Holme around the back of the bungalows, but found nothing at all. All the good birds were east today! Time for lunch! Went to Hunstanton and bought veggie burger and salad in a roll with chips from Fisher's and parked under some shady trees at Lincoln Square, overlooking the clifftop road and the sea. Shared some of my chips with a Herring Gull and 2 Black-headed Gulls. The cars were bumper to bumper all along the clifftop, not a single space available – generally very busy indeed.
I then headed to Heacham to pop into see an old family friend, who is going through a very difficult time right now and I felt they needed some support – mission accomplished, I then returned home to King's Lynn. I had set my breadmaker machine up before I left the house this morning and the bread had finished baking about 15 minutes before I arrived home – note to self, DO NOT forget to add the yeast to the machine Penelope! The granary loaf is about 2 inches high, very hard and now on the bird table! Waste of precious five hours of electric! In fact I will probably have to stop using my breadmaker, as its going to be cheaper to buy a loaf of bread.
I need to start clearing the crap out of my house, so decided to have a
quick revamp of our childhood Victorian leather topped writing desk,
which we had in the house at Holme – as children we had ruined it with
Rupert Bear transfers all over the draw front! I was able to remove
these fairly quickly I found and also for some unknown reason, my father
had stuck sticky contact vinyl paper over the leather! I managed to get
this off sooner than expected, but was then left with a very sticky
leather surface, which was hardly surprising, as that contact paper must
have been on there well over fifty years! Googling for advice, I
managed to remove most of the stickiness with lots of elbow grease and
damp cloth with a spot or two of washing up liquid.
I haven't achieved a perfect result, but it looks far more presentable now and is going to the auction tomorrow! Its a dark wood desk (not my thing) and even though its difficult to part with emotionally, neither my sisters or I really want it. I can't remember where my parents bought it from, but a good guess would be from Peter Tipple's warehouse in Holme, he was a bit of an antiques dealer and I always loved going to look at what he had for sale. I don't think the desk will sell for very much, but I may be surprised! Someone will have fun restoring it to its former glory I'm sure – or it may not sell at all?!🤞
UPDATE
Took the desk and a chair over to Keys Auctioneers on Tuesday and I was told that the desk was "American Walnut". The desk and chair will be sold on Monday 12th September in their general weekly sale which is in two lots at 9.30am and 11.00am and you can bid live! A lovely little restoration project to bring this lovely desk back to its former glory. https://www.keysauctions.co.uk/
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So glad to hear you are now out & about again;
ReplyDeleteHope you get a good price for the desk from a worthy buyer! VBW
Thank you!
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