Sunday Picture Post: Down Whitlingham Way

Posted on May 31, 2026 by crispina kemp

18th May 2026 and how the weather forecasters do rile us. It’s going to rain, it’s not going to rain, it’s going to rain. Rain or not we hop a bus into Norwich and walk the lane to Whitlingham Country Park. We’ll take shelter if it rains. Join us.

18th May 2026

🔼 What I like about Whitlingham is it’s usually dry under foot! This paved walk is lined with golden buttercups. 🔽 And everywhere, yellow flags edge the water

18th May 2026

🔽 But with the unsettled weather forecast, we’re keeping an eye on that sky!

18th May 2026

18th May 2026

🔼 As far as I know, these churchy-looking ruins were once the summer residence of the bishop of Norwich. Certainly the bishop did have a summer residence here, where he and his cohorts escaped the nasty miasmas of summers in the city 🔽 But back in those medieval days this lake did not exist. Here was a great grazing marsh. This lake was formed when gravel/aggregates were quarried for use in the making of the Norwich Southern Bypass. The adjacent River Yare then filled the hole and pretty soon the swans appeared

18th May 2026

18th May 2026

🔼 These Egyptian geese (aka Spectacle geese) are obeying the ‘Rule of Three 🔽 Or are they keeping an eye on the weather? ⏬ Just look at those clouds rolling in

18th May 2026

🔽 !!!

18th May 2026

18th May 2026

🔼 Yellow Flags. Have I said I love Yellow Flags. Well, in case I haven’t, I’ll say it now. I love Yellow Flags!!! 🔽 With the sky clouding over we take a detour through the woods… ⏬ and back out again

18th May 2026

18th May 2026

🔽 So many trees here but this is maybe my favourite. Gnarly!

18th May 2026

Alas, that’s all for now, folks. And where are we off to next week?

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Raise The Flag

Posted on May 30, 2026 by crispina kemp

18th May 2026

So many wild flowers, I swear I do love them all. But every year when May is edging into June I wait in excited anticipation for the appearance of the Yellow Flag (Iris pseudacorus) and living in the ‘wetlands’ of Norfolk, as I do, I’m always sure to see the,

V is for Vibrant, my May choice for Maria’s Photo Challenge.

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If Only…

Posted on May 30, 2026 by crispina kemp

Image by Pete Linforth via Pixabay

Alone at night I want to write
To pen the perfect prose
To express my deepest hidden feelings
Even if it’s only to recite them to the bedroom ceiling
I want to speak of that one
Yes, that one
The one who woke me
The one with whom I had so much fun
Despite…maybe…because of the rules in force when that begun
Rules that forbade our meeting
Rules that in retrospect seem so fleeting
The one with whom I’m forever entangled
But how to find that perfect angle
How to channel that magister, Tolkien
And become a fellow Inkling

99 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Inkling

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CCC088: Bob’s Got A Barrow

Posted on May 28, 2026 by crispina kemp

Tom: Hey, Bob, whatchya doing there?

Bob: Me? What’s it look like? Loading these stones into me barrow.

Tom: But… why?

Bob: Why’d yer think? It’d take an age to carry ‘em all.

Tom: But… carry them to where? And anyway, are you meant to be taking them? That’s our church, you know.

Bob: Our church that no one’s using cos the vicar don’t want to make the journey.

Tom: Yea, but…

Bob: No buts. The bishop says it’s all gone to waste and we can help ourselves. Now, you gonna keep on gassing or are you gonna lend me a hand. I’ve a pigsty to build, you know.

Saxlingham Thorpe Church Historical Note (for those who care to know)

According to Blomefield’s History of Norfolk the last rector to hold Thorpe independently of Nethergate was in 1362. Thereafter the two churches were held in union. Attendances at Thorpe declined. The parishioners complained to the bishop claiming the rector held services at inconvenient times because he held the two cures. The Bishop rebuked the rector. It made no difference.

Over the ensuing years, Thorpe church fell out of use, and not being used, it wasn’t repaired. Nor was it only the church. The rectory, which might underlay Mud Hall, also fell into disrepair.

In 1684 an order was issued that no more repairs were to be done to Thorpe church, and permission was given to sell any ornamental work from Thorpe church, the proceeds to go to Nethergate. The ruinous church became a builder’s supply yard.

Yet, incredibly, the parish registers were kept separate until 1740.

 

 

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, History, Mostly Micro, Prompt | Tagged , , , | 32 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #088

Posted on May 27, 2026 by crispina kemp

Every Wednesday I’ll post FOUR photos (if you want to get a head start you’ll find them marked in that week’s Sunday Picture Post and Tuesday Treats). Lots of choice!

And here they are:

You respond with something CREATIVE. Perhaps an  answering photo, or micro-fiction, or a poem, or just a caption

As before, there are only two criteria:

!!!!! Your creative offering is indeed yours !!!!!

!!!!! Your writing is kept to 150 words or less !!!!!

If you post a link in the comments section of this post I’ll be able to find it.

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN

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Tuesday Treats: The Smaller Stuff

Posted on May 26, 2026 by crispina kemp

Like the title says, photographs of the ‘smaller stuff’, as seen during our walk on 11th May 2026. Enjoy…

11th May 2026

🔼 A couple of rather noisy sheep! Bah…Bah…

11th May 2026

From the large to the small 🔼 Love the flowers on the Horse Chestnut tree

11th May 2026

🔼 Love the Field Scabious, and we’re seeing them in plenty this year 🔽 Scabious again, not yet in full bloom, paying court to the Ox-Eye Daisy

11th May 2026

11th May 2026

Now for the weeny ones 🔼 Forget Me Not  🔽 Speedwell, circling with the ivy as if to weave a crown

11th May 2026

11th May 2026

Flowers of damp places and shady lanes 🔼 Bugle 🔽 Cowslip

11th May 2026

11th May 2026

Lovers of bright places 🔼 Black Medic and 🔽 Lesser Stitchwort

11th May 2026

11th May 2026

Saved these till last 🔼 Honeysuckle 🔽 Gatekeeper. The only butterfly we saw that very windy, sunless day

11th May 2026

Hope you enjoyed! More next week

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Sunday Picture Post: Green Lanes and Arable Fields

Posted on May 24, 2026 by crispina kemp

The forecast for 11th May 2026 isn’t good. Wind. Cold. Potential rain. Disregarding the negatives, we’re up early to get into Norwich, for the bus we need is an infrequent service. Yea, we’re there in time, and after a very bumpy ride we hop off here…

11th May 2026

🔼 As the sign in the window says, this is Hempnall – where I spent many a school holiday with my grandma. But we’re not ‘walking the Krons’ today as I did many times with grandma’s dog. We’re heading to the next village 🔽 Kron Manor, built ca.1610, much modified since

11th May 2026

11th May 2026

🔼 A few steps west of the village-proper is Pymar’s Lane. This is where our route begins 🔽 And is often the case, it takes us through a farmyard

11th May 2026

11th May 2026

🔼 For most of our trail we’ll be walking through scenes such as this. Saxlingham is great for walkers, with a plethora of public footpaths, all in good keep 🔽 Steps and a handrail down into ‘Mud Hole’. The open pipe beside the steps might alert you to the source of the ‘mud’. It’s more than just field drainage. When I was researching the history of Saxlingham, I discovered there’s a river rises between Saxlingham and Hempnall which has been directed via here, along Wash Lane, and subsequently under the village road to eventually join the River Tas. Today the ‘hole’ is dry.

11th May 2026

11th May 2026

🔼 Love this church. St Mary’s of Saxlingham Thorpe. The parish register records the presence of Kemps in the village (long story) 🔽

11th May 2026

🔽 Seen across the fields, St Mary’s at the neighbouring parish of Saxlingham Nethergate

11th May 2026

11th May 2026

🔼 Wash Lane, dry today. I have waded through it on past occasions 🔽 Looking back at Wash Lane as our trail takes us out of this ‘sometime-stream’s’ shallow valley

11th May 2026

11th May 2026

🔼 A short and rather narrow lane separate these two green lanes 🔽

11th May 2026

Emerging onto another lane, we’re heading now for our bus back to Norwich.

Hope you enjoyed our walk. More photos on Tuesday

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These Nourish My Soul

Posted on May 23, 2026 by crispina kemp

20th April 2026

Woodland walks
Loving talks
These nourish my soul
Makes me whole
These my heart does cherish

16 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Cherish

Posted in Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , | 20 Comments

Friday Flyers: Birds, Bees, Butterflies and Damsels

Posted on May 22, 2026 by crispina kemp

Photos of winged beings… as seen on our walk on 8th May 2026

Butterflies…

8th May 2026

🔼 Green-veined White 🔽 Painted Lady, looking rather faded having survived the winter

8th May 2026

8th May 2026

🔼 Peacock 🔽 Small White AND a ladybird

8th May 2026

8th May 2026

🔼 Speckled Wood 🔽 Male Wall

8th May 2026

Other winged beings…

8th May 2026

🔼 Blue Tit looking very proud 🔽 Amber-bummed Bumble bee (no, that’s probably not the proper name for it) ⏬ Female Large Red Damsel (that is the proper name for it)

8th May 2026

8th May 2026

And that, my friends, is all for now.

Next week we head inland to arable rural South Norfolk

 

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CCC087: This Land of Mine

Posted on May 21, 2026 by crispina kemp

Let me paint this land of mine

Wash the sky with powder blue
Forbid existence to clouds anew
Mix a brave and earthy green
To stand for the most honest sturdy trees you’ve seen
Gild the fields in golden hues
Then, remember those puffy clouds? We’ll call back those
Daub them liberally around the edges
To underscore the hedges

Say now, if you will, is not the hand
Which created this land
Simply divine

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos, Poems (Some Silly), Prompt | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments