Covehithe

A wonderful walk at Covehithe on the gravel beach that separates the sea from the salt marsh and the flocks of seagulls wheeling in the low winter sun. The beach littered with sea-worn masonry, plant bulbs and uprooted trees torn from the cliff tops as the coast is remorselessly eaten away by the tides. A beautiful stretch of raw Norfolk coast, with the small village at ongoing peril and just along the coast from the teashops of Southwold.

wikipedia.org - In 1910 Peter Ditchfield wrote:^[7]

'At Covehithe, on the Suffolk coast, there has been the greatest loss of land. In 1887 sixty feet was claimed by the sea, and in ten years (1878-87) the loss was at the rate of over eighteen feet a year. In 1895 another heavy loss occurred between Southwold and Covehithe and a new cove formed.'

Winter Shadow Drawing

Drawing plants and their shadows in Norfolk - enjoying the pause in the holiday storm between Christmas and New Year. Wonderful walks around Claxton and Strumpshaw, opposite sides of the Yare river but in so many ways different landscapes and of course for me with different family associations. The hedgerows are uncharacteristically alive, with daffodils actually blooming in this most strange of winters and the birds are louder that unusual, territorial and confused blackbirds blurting out of the bushes. The greenery is reassuringly flattened by wind and rain and the dried stems of cow-parsley stand beautifully silhouetted against the sky along the damp lanes, wet tarmac shining white in the low winter sun.