17th September, 7:00 am, caught a bus to Norwich, and another from Norwich to Poringland… which is situated at the second-highest area in Norfolk. From there we walked downhill all the way to the Tas Valley.
It was to be a day of trees: 📷 17/09/2020
📷 17/09/2020
My eyes were keened for autumn foliage. Mostly I was disappointed.
On top of the world: 📷 17/09/2020
We were walking the interfluve between the rivers Yare and Tas. Claylands, the last to be cleared. When England was settled by Anglo-Saxons, this would have been woodland, grazed by cattle and swine.
Undulating land: 📷 17/09/2020
A field of yellowing peas: 📷 17/09/2020
I feared this was the most autumnal colour I’d find
All Saints’ church, Shotesham: 📷 17/09/2020
Shotesham once comprised 4 parishes and had 4 churches: St Martins, St Marys, St Botolphs and All Saints. St Marys and All Saints are still in use.
A grand old oak: 📷 17/09/2020
From Shotesham we continued downhill to Saxlingham Green. Here the houses, mostly thatched, are set back behind a deep corridor of greenery.
Loved the play of shadows and sun: 📷 17/09/2020
An Elizabethan House: 📷 17/09/2020
That wobbly fence I posted last Saturday for the 2020picoftheweek challenge belonged to this house. We are now into Saxlingham Nethergate.
Multi-trunked tree: 📷 17/09/2020
I found this wonderfully complex tree at Smockmill Common, Saxlingham Thorpe
A glimpse of the river Tas: 📷 17/09/2020
The Tas bounds Smockmill Common. It also forms the boundary between Saxlingham and Newton Flotman.
One last tree: 📷 17/09/2020
A veritable octopus of a tree. Clearly, its early life was spent in spacious conditions, not other trees crowding it.
Hope you enjoyed our visit to this tiny corner of Norfolk. Tuesday I’ll be posting flowers and fungi seen this day
crispina kemp 
Love your pictorial tour. The last tree is so awesome
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It is, isn’t it
Glad you enjoyed. I certainly did 🙂
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Thanks 🙏
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🙂
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Wonderful. I so love the names of the towns in your country. Beautiful pictures. Thanks for taking us along on your walk!
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Most were named by the Anglo-Saxons way back in C6th/C7th and have reached their present form through centuries of speech.
Poringland is a later name. It’s Viking. Shotesham means a hamlet comprised of ‘tax pieces’. Saxlingham refers to a lord name Saxe, not to the Saxons and means the hamlet of the people of Saxe. Nethergate = Lower Street. Newton Flotman means the town founded by the ferryman (he ferried travellers over the River Tas… which then was much wider and deeper, before it silted.)
All quite simple… when you know the history and language. As you know, this is my love. 🙂
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Fascinating!
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🙂 I know, I can bore the pants off anyone when I get onto my subject
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Not for me. I love this stuff.
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Oh good. I do love a receptive ear 🙂
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You’ve got one in me!
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🙂
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I am most intrigued that some of your rivers seem like trickles. To me rivers are wide deep powerful things but I suppose in places I have seen the great murrumbigee river as a trickle before the snows.
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There are two answeres to this:
1: England (or Britain) is a tiny land. Wide roaring rivers would leave us no place to live or till land.
2: That land has been tilled for 5000 years. With no forest to hold the topsoil, 5000 yrs of rain has washed the soil into the valleys, silting the rivers, building wide fertile valleys
For instance, the River Tas, seen here, was used a main waterway by the Romans, able to navigate far up river. Now even at its confluence with the Yare (close to the Roman town of Venta Icenorum), its barely deep enough to swim in.
I live on the bank of the Yare, at its meeting with the sea. And even there it’s not wide.
We are a small land. Everything scaled to fit
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So what happened to the other two parishes of Shotesham? Cleared? Churches completely gone, in ruins, or standing and closed up?
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St Martins remains as a shell… walls and tower. St Botolphs remains only as parts of the footings.
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Thank you.
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No probs. I could refer you to an older post which has photos of… but that means I have to find it and it’s buried deep
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Haha, if the last photo is an octopus tree, the multi-trunk tree should be a squid! LOL
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Very good.Didn’t think of that.
How are the snails doing?
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They are too fast for me! Lol. Nah, more like I haven’t got around to taking photographs of them. But I took photographs of flora whenever I come across them.
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That’s good. It keeps you focused. Pun intended 🙂
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Look at them old trees! Very old.
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🙂
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