Back to the sea

I walked out to the sea last evening. There is nothing particularly unusual about that other than remarkably it seems to have been 3 weeks since my last walk in that direction.  In so many ways it stays the same and yet in others it has changed significantly.

Having had a sequence of days of brilliant sunshine and wonderful light, last evening was different. Chilly and cloudy, but clouds with mobility and ragged edges. The bittern is still there, booming as his, or her, want and now joined by a cuckoo over towards Holkham. Birds aplenty but now slightly less activity which always surprises, but birds do what they do each year much earlier than I expect.

The Alexanders along the bank are growing up on either side, changing the character of the path. No longer on the top but nestling down into a burgeoning froth of green and yellow. As yet it isn't intrusive but with the next burst of warmth they'll be up to waist and then shoulder height, and soon past their peak reminding us just how fast the season moves on.

The closer to the sea you get the less the seasonal changes are apparent, the dunes always seem much as they always are. The sand moves and drifts in the wind but the plant growth hugs the ground out here. The beach itself looks unchanged. It could be October, January or May. And yet to those who know it has changed.

Looking west towards the Island, the channel has moved. Having been stable for a while it has now shifted eastwards back towards Wells. Subtle in terms of the scale of the landscape but to those who enter and leave the creek more significant than all the visual seasonal changes around us.

Going out like a lion

Having had a relatively peaceful month weatherwise, March has been making up for it bigtime in the last couple of days. Since the clocks changed and we entered British Summer Time, we seem to have had everything. Warm, cold, rain, sleet, hail, wind - and in all directions. Vertical - up and down - and horizontal. All that is apart from the wind which seems stuck blowing in from the north-west.

With little more than 6 hours of the month left and the wind finally appearing to ease, this bit of Norfolk collected the whole lot in 10 minutes. It did however leave quite a good rainbow in its wake.

So what next? As I have noted here previously, Easter in Norfolk has a habit of bringing more weather than Christmas, so it seems reasonable to think there might be a bit more to come. "Ne'er cast a clout til May be out", as they say.

Not in your backyard

Most planning applications attract objections regardless of the quality of design or the merit of the proposed use. My recollection is that an application has to be publicised on site and that those affected are given the opportunity to have their views considered. Consequently within communities, be they rural or urban, it is unlikely that anything proceeds without this consideration. At rural locations outside communities it seems things can turn out rather differently.

Within the last few days a proposal to develop a poultry unit just outside Sedgeford has hit the fan in a big way. The term 'poultry unit' is one way to describe it. To most this is an industrial process, an animal factory housing over 300,000 birds in a facility which I understand is large on a national scale. Almost unbelievably it would seem that, despite the application being lodged over two months ago, until the last week most of those who live in the villages most closely related - Sedgeford, Fring and Docking - were not aware of it.

These communities are not immediate neighbours to the proposal but their lives would almost inevitably be affected by lorries servicing the site and potential environmental issues yet it seems that in the absence of public consultation, the majority were unaware. A cursory look on-line at the planning application raises further issues. Sedgeford Parish Council were consulted and somewhat strangely, given the level of adverse reaction that has now surfaced, they would have appear to have supported the application. Not only does this raise the question how representative they are of their constituents but how their consideration was not widely known.

Environmentally, there are significant issues raised by this type and scale of unit. The Environment Agency have already flagged up the site's location in relation to primary aquifers and the need to manage run-off. Slightly more alarmist, at least one of those now alerted to the application has very clearly stated the potential hazards relating to this scale of unit population in terms of use of and transmission of anti-biotic resistant genes, not just from the ventilation of the site but from the lorries moving birds in and out of the site.

This proposal is not in our backyard but it does highlight how easy it is for this type of proposal to proceed outside communities. It is also not alone. Much smaller in scale but realistically described as 'giant' rearing sheds for ducks at Fulmodeston near Fakenham attracted opposition from residents and the three neighbouring Parish Councils, despite which it was approved by the District Council last Friday.

Further afield and utterly different in type of use, a licensing application for wedding parties in a rural location has been made in advance of a planning application for the use, which seems a way in which a potentially disruptive use might make progress without wider consideration - in a way that would be unlikely in an urban context.

Spring

On Saturday it was definitely mild - if a little breezy. It felt, as Kenneth Grahame put it, that “Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below.. "

Yesterday, I had cause to go first to Norwich and then onwards via Acle to North Walsham. The sun shone, the sky was blue and Norfolk looked good and felt good. So good that there was a perceptible air of puzzlement if not disappointment amongst those at the plant nursery that not much new growth was on offer. Of course, had it been chilly and damp, this wouldn't have been noticed by anyone, always supposing they had gone to look.

The constant supply of statistics - warmest, sunniest and so on - coupled with the underlying climate change story means that our expectations outpace reality. Yes, the weekend was mild and yes, the last couple of months have seen sunny days, but it is still early March and despite the statistics, February was not unusually mild. Plant growth is accordingly more or less where it normally is in this part of the world. In fact looking back at photographs from last year everything is slightly later this year.

Just to prove the point, today after an early frost we are back with grey skies, a chilly breeze and a little dampness..... but there is no denying Spring is indeed on the move again, and our first featured exhibition of the season is just three weeks away.

A quiet time

Life round here seems to have slipped seamlessly into another year. No alarms, no excursions - its all rather peaceful. From a business point of view this is not entirely unexpected but these things do vary. This year, across the board whether your business is food or fashion, the word on the street seems to be quiet.

Many tourism based businesses use this as their down time, often not opening again until the February half-term. Strangely to some, Burnham does not follow that pattern and almost everybody continues, albeit with more modest opening hours. Our winter thus far has, like last year, been fairly unremarkable. Some rain, some wind but little frost or snow up here on Norfolk's northern fringe so that can't be the reason. Or maybe it can.

Largely deprived of real horrors, the English tend to actually like being scared - as long as it's within reason - and now with instant news and social media the extremes of tempest, snow and ice are on every phone or screen. We love the drama, the interruption and excitement - the whole idea, and given the opportunity we go out looking for it.  Triumphing over nature in our capable cars, attired in clever clothes - it's so much more than just going out.

And so far, it just hasn't happened here. Quiet weather, quiet days, not much action anywhere. Over the years, we have seen more sales on days when you would have thought anybody who didn't need to be out there would have stayed at home than on those more challenging days. So maybe some serious snow is what's required.

But of course we are in Norfolk where historically we're more likely to see snow at Easter than Christmas, so the best may be yet to come. And has been said before, "be careful what you wish for"   for as the person being interviewed in a snow-bound Derbyshire said today - "it looks lovely until you try to drive"

Richard Godfrey, 1949 - 2014

We only knew Richard for some 8 years, but in that short time the warmth of his personality and his generous friendship came to mean a great deal to Alison, Sam, Emma and I.  His pots were miraculous, their vibrant colours and zinging graphics becoming a permanent - or so we thought - and much loved feature of both galleries, bringing joy to so many.

But it was Richard himself who was special. Memories of sitting in his seemingly always sunny studio talking over coffee about friends, music and art while he continued to work, staying with him and Chris, and the wonderful array of family and friends he introduced to us will last forever. We count ourselves extraordinarily lucky to have known him.

And we were amongst so many. To see the church in a far corner of Devon bursting at the seams with those who wished to mark and celebrate his life came as no surprise - a fitting reflection of the generousity of his spirit. The tributes on social media are moving, personal and exceed anything I have seen before. How one man can have contributed so much to so many lives is humbling.

We will really miss him as will so many others. Very much thinking of all his family and friends - but assume and hope they took as much away from the service as we did.

Mutual - if distant - attractions

For reasons now lost in the mists of time, I am a friend of the Bovey Tracey Craft Fair. It's over 300 miles away and, as its now fashionable to say, other fairs are available. Many of the artists and makers who show there each June return year after year, and yet I still feel drawn to attend whenever possible. Not too big, but with plenty to see and talk about, I have never been disappointed.

It was I think in 2012 that I first saw the work of Rob Braysbrook. For him it's also quite a way from home - in his case the very furthest extremity of Cornwall, so it wasn't a complete surprise that I hadn't seen his work before. Regular visitors to events of this kind will know how quickly everything starts to look very similar and general levels of receptiveness begin to drop. And yet in amongst an embarrassment of riches - the standard is high - Rob's work caught and held my attention.

Two and a half years on, I am delighted to have some of his work here in Norfolk. His reliefs cut from birch veneer please me on all kinds of level, and in the few days they have been here my reaction has been replicated by our visitors. As one customer pointed out, this is exactly how most of us see waders and their kind, as outlines against the light or reflected in the wet mud.

My pleasure at being able to show it here was heightened by the fact that the artist brought it in person, renewing our contact, travelling over 400 miles to sample the unknown delights of North Norfolk. In my view, he could have been forgiven for not being over-excited, it being undeniably grey and by the dramatic standards of far Penwith less than stimulating.

Nothing could have been further from the truth. Having suggested the walk on the bank at Overy as worth a try, we bumped into each other in the dusk just 24 hours later. Norfolk had worked its magic on him, the sight of the elusive rough-legged Buzzard and a short-eared (I think) Owl just confirming the message I had apparently conveyed to him back at Bovey. And as with so many things about gallery life, there was an added bonus insofar as he departed heading west bearing a work for delivery in Falmouth.

Inevitably, our conversations have reignited my latent love of Cornwall and I imagine I may well find myself heading their way in the New Year. I love our saltmarsh coast but a little wild wetness of cliffs and rolling waves does seem very tempting just now.