Thursday 20th May - Garden Meeting and Preparations

Yesterday, members of Overstrand WI were able to have their first meeting since last August. One of our members volunteered her woodland garden as the venue and here she kindly provided us with tea and cakes while we sat and exchanged news and discussed a number of topics, as well as completing the items on the agenda. We are a small group which in many ways works in our favour, in that we get to know each other better than we would in a large gathering. The weather was perfect for an outdoor meeting with the added bonus of watching an inquisitive rabbit hopping towards the family vegetable plot and orange tip butterflies fluttering about. If all goes to plan, from next month we will be meeting, as before, in the Parish Hall in The Londs.

A slight change this week to our usual Friday shopping trip to Mundesley. As the road through Sidestrand will be closed tomorrow, we decided to shop today, rather than having to take a diversion. Many will know, diversions here in this part of Norfolk often take you on something of a mystery tour, covering a number of miles. Back home, I spent most of the morning in the kitchen cooking some dishes ready for our family visit during half-term. Our daughter in law is vegetarian which means variations to my normal recipes. I always taste these dishes but I find, despite using the same ingredients, substituting meat with Quorn, they are far short in flavour to their meat counterparts. I suppose, over time this is something you would get used to and maybe compensate in other ways. As for the Italian style beef casserole I cooked today with Quorn, I ended up adding sugar to counteract the acidity I tasted in the sauce and allspice to try and give it a boost in flavour. I will of course, have an alternative should this not be to her liking. We have often said, in the summer months when there is so much more variety in seasonal vegetables than in the winter that we could become vegetarian, but as for the all essential proteins, I don’t imagine Quorn would feature in our diet.

Today’s photos were taken this morning of the sign at the bottom of the zigzag (erected for the benefit of walkers to show the direction of the coastal path, Paston Way, Cromer Pier and local services) and the tractors on the beach, basking in the morning sunshine while awaiting the return of the fishing boats.