Saturday 22nd October 2022 - Quince Dish, an Autumn Walk and New Topper

A quick update about the quinces, the first two I started peeling, for my pork and quince dish, had brown speckles throughout. Fortunately, the third was fine. I decided to leave the other three quinces for the beef dish I will be cooking next week. Although there wasn’t as much quince as I would have liked, the pork and other ingredients provided a richly flavoured casserole for our dinner on Thursday.

Peter suggested the other week, we take a walk through the village and up Tower Lane in Sidestrand before continuing from here, inland. It was dull on Wednesday morning but mild and no forecast of rain, so we set off to make the most of the dry conditions on what was a very pleasant walk with a minimum of road work. After stopping on the cliff tops to turn and take a photo looking across Overstrand, we continued on the field edge to the road, pausing to observe a kestrel hovering, looking for a mid-morning snack. Crossing the road, the path on the opposite side took us up to Hungry Hill. We stopped on the path at the point where some years ago there was a track leading up to the reservoir. This is now overgrown but we noted gate posts which we later confirmed was the Sidestrand railway halt. The halt was opened in 1936 and shut when the section of line between Cromer and Mundesley closed in 1953. At Hungry Hill, we walked a short length of the lane, passing both old brick and flint and new metal barns. When we first moved to Overstrand there used to be large greenhouses here too where we purchased shrubs and bedding plants at very reasonable prices for our garden. Past here we turned right down a track used by vehicles to access the radar station. At the station a path leads down into the woods. We cut up through the trees and down the track bordered by bracken, now drying back and turning brown. Up again to cross the field and down onto Madams Lane, stopping to watch a flock of long tailed tits winging their way from tree to tree. Not far now, we took the left path before you get to the railway bridge. From here we sauntered along the filed edge, through the allotments and back home. Considering Norfolk is supposed to be a flat county, this walk contains and fair few ‘ups and downs’. I have included below a selection of photos, (click on each frame to enlarge) showing our route.

We have a new topper on the post box, outside the village stores. This has been knitted by the same lady who produced the one placed early September (see my blog dated 8th September). This is well timed as the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal starts next week, culminating on the 13th November with Remembrance Day services.