Oxburgh Hall Interiors

Before heading to Kings Lynn for the Skipinnish Concert, back in July, Harriet and I revisited Oxburgh Hall - a beautiful National Trust property in Norfolk.  The weather was dull and grey with spots of rain, so we spent some time indoors looking at the hall interiors.  I am so glad that the National Trust now allow photography inside their buildings, and the Fuji 10-24 is an ideal lens for task owing to its wide angle of view and superb image stabilisation.  Some of the shots below were taken as low as 1/7s, hand held without any physical support, and they are pin sharp.  Most are at ISO 3200 too.

Water Baby

Last week Izzi and I had a "Grand Day Out" in Norfolk, principally to do some shopping at the wonderful Roy's of Wroxham.  Apparently it was "essential" to buy lots of "stuff" before the new University term, although I'm sure it wasn't like this in my day.

Needless to say, The Dumb Blonde came along too; and, given that we had some time to kill before lunch (and serious shopping), we decided to head to Salhouse Broad: one of our favourite locations, and a great place for canine swimming.  It didn't take long before Amber went headlong into the water...

Sometimes, the similarity between Amber and Winston Churchill is uncanny.

Although Amber is a retriever through and through, she's never quite got the hang of handing back what she's just fetched.  I suppose blondes are allowed to play hard to get.

Gradually worsening arthritis means that Amber is now getting rather "limpy" on land, but this hasn't dampened her enthusiasm for diving into water (no pun untended).

I only wish Salhouse Broad were a bit closer to home, as it would do Amber a huge amount of good to swim on a regular basis.  I suppose we'll just have to visit Roy's again soon...

One Man and his Dog go to Cley

Having been left to fend for myself yesterday, I decided that the dumb blonde and I should go to Cley for the day.  To be exact, I decided that a trip to WEX was in order (always a good idea), followed by lunch at Natural Surroundings - an excellent wildflower and wildlife centre on an old estate near Glandford, just inland from Cley.  As well as serving the brilliant combination of cheese and jalapeño peppers on toast (thoroughly recommended), Natural Surroundings is also an excellent place to buy bird food in bulk.  Better than I can get at my local supplier, and significantly cheaper.  Poor old Amber had to share the car with 80kg of seed on the way home, but she didn't seem to mind too much.  I am reminded of the quote from Mary Poppins when one of the children asks for 2d in order to buy a bag of food for the birds:

Fiddlesticks, boy!  Feed the birds and what have you got?  Fat birds!

But I digress...

Amber and I spent a very happy hour on the beach at Cley (of "not-quite-next-the-sea" fame), walking on the shingle and watching everyone else being energetic.  Some mad people were even swimming in the North Sea - rather them than me...

There was a time when Amber would have walked for miles along the beach, but she's now starting to get on a bit and arthritis in her elbow joints is really taking its toll.  She was still as enthusiastic as ever to be on the beach, though, and happy enough to walk (slowly) for two 25 minutes stretches with a 10 minute sit-down in the middle.  It really was a wonderful place to be on a Saturday afternoon, and reminds one that the simple pleasures in life are always the best.

Trip to the Norfolk Coast

The past couple of weeks has been spent preparing for, executing, and then recovering from Christmas, so it was great to get out yesterday with my daughter Frances, her husband Christopher and Amber (of course) to the Norfolk Coast.  It was a bit nippy in the wind, but really nice when the sun came out.  It was also an opportunity for me to try out a couple of new Fuji lenses: the 50-140/2.8 and 16-55/2.8.  I deliberately put them through their paces by shooting wide open most of the day, and so far I've been very impressed with the results - especially from the 50-140 (75-210 full-frame equivalent, which is one of my favourite focal lengths).

Amber's natural home seems to be at the seaside, and she was terribly excited to be able to run round on the shingle at Cley (which patently isn't next-the-Sea, despite its name).

Christopher was skimming stones on the water, and Amber decided it would be a good idea to go and "fetch" one.  Unfortunately she didn't see the wave which then completely drenched her...

As always, there were lots of good smells on the beach.

The Fuji X-T1 is not known for its focusing abilities, but it made a pretty good job of capturing Christopher who was attempting to out-run Amber.

Frances had borrowed my backup Fuji camera - an X-E2 - and was getting to grips with it by photographing interesting things on the sea shore.

Ahhhh...

Time to check the pictures on the back of the camera.

Curses - spotted!

Christopher doing a little jig after winning the (highly intellectual) game of Pooh Sticks.

After lunch we went on to Wells (which really is next-the-sea), but by this time it had become very overcast and gloomy.

An excellent day out, and a wonderful antidote to the over-indulgence of the previous few days.