So things are absolutely crazy here at the moment. Have I said this before?? Can’t remember…my brain is trying to do an impression of a black hole here…all intelligent thought has been eradicated by the mindnumbingly boring task of the multiple marathon. Read, tick, read, comment, read, tick, sign, blah, blah, blah! When the words and images start to blur together I take a break, but I’m under time pressure here, we’re already behind schedule because of the volcanic ash disruption… aaarghh! I have to be fair and accurate, this is someone's future I’m deciding here….
Sadly my tribal classes have finished, but I think I may have found another tribal troop so I plan to start those after half term now my lovely students have finished classes and I can get to a six o’clock dance class. I do still have my Turkish/Egyptian belly dance classes though, so I get to sparkle once a week for now. This is the class which will be having the Hafla in approximately three weeks – wow, so quickly! We’re practicing our choreography like mad, but I think we’ll be ready in time. We usually are. Now comes the first dilemma – what to wear!? I have a very colourful banded circle skirt which I’m thinking of wearing, but I need to decide on a top and accessories. I’ll have to have a dress-up session.
I also have a ticket for the Raqs brittania night – Bellydance Superstars are performing in Sheffield, England the same week as our Halfa, so I need to decide what I’m wearing to that too. And save up money for the souk of course! Although I probably won’t be able to afford much! Sooo excited to see them!
Anyway, we’re now in summer half term – hurray for holidays, unpaid though they may be. M and I decided to go to the coast for the Bank Holiday weekend. We stayed at a Deer Park in Snettisham in Norfolk. We went early on Saturday and came back on Monday. We managed to cram quite a lot into our weekend though. On Saturday, since the weather was wet (Bank Holiday weather, suprprise, surprise..) we left Joe in the caravan and went to the Sealife Centre in Hunstanton and admired the fish, otters and seals
Our visit coincided with otter feeding time and you’ve never heard such noisy scolding as a …pack?…what do you call a group of otters?…of hungry otters!
The aquariums were lovely, some of them were really colourful, M was particularly taken with the viewing pool of stingrays…
Since we were sans cannine, we spent an hour in the beachside bar admiring the surfers. It was too cold and wet to walk along the beachfront.
On Sunday we took advantage of our location on the Deer Park to to the activities onsite. The first thing we signed up for was bottle feeding the lambs!!!
Isn’t he adorable!!! And if you thought the otters were noisy, these little guys were even noisier! This particular breed to sheep have only two teats, and commonly have twins, so when a ewe has triplets, the extra lamb is bottle fed to make sure that it develops well. We all had a bottle each and the lambs were let out half a dozen at a time, to charge out looking for a bottle. That was just the funniest sight! And boy can they chug a bottle! We got to feed three or four lambs.
The next thing on the agenda was the deer safari. We all sat in a customised trailer with seats and were towed round the park by a tractor. The deer park is right on the edge of the Sandringham Estate where the Queen lives sometimes. The farmer said that all the land round that you could see belonged to the Queen except for this bit that the deer park was on. We had regular stops allowing us to see the deer. They’re busy shedding their winter coat at the moment.
The first baby had been born a weekend or two before, so we timed it well. Apparently the mothers hide the babies in the rushes for ten days to protect them from predators, so we lucky to be able to see a couple. Some of them were still hiding though…we just caught a glimpse of them hiding! We also got to hand feed some of the deer from the trailer!
In the afternoon, we went to visit a friend of mine who has hand built an Eceni Village with her husband! This is the sort of place Boudicca would have grown up on. They’re both living historians who travel to schools to re-enact periods in history.
All that lovely yellow you can see is woad, you get the lovely blue colour from the stalks and roots.
They have quite a few buildings now, the men's hall (or tavern!) where one of the altars was, also the weapons etc.
The houses were quite cosy inside, they'd been well insulated so they all they needed were tiny fires which were enough to keep them warm.
One of the houses (called the moon house) had a lovely bedroom…
There were some sheep, goats, chickens etc which live there too, and the fleece from the sheep and goats are collected to weaving. Jo uses the natural dyes from the plants about to weave the garments and fabrics onsite.
We then headed back to Hunstanton to walk along the front with Joe, enjoying a handmade ice-cream, then onto Norfolk Lavender, which sadly was shut by the time we got there!
Sadly the gas bottle ran out late Sunday night, and faced with heavy rain on Monday morning and the prospect of no morning cuppa or food to keep us warm, we decided to head home after an exhausting, but very enjoyable weekend!
Highlights – bottle feeding the lambs, feed the deer
Lows – the weather…sigh!
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