Busy with visitors

Just finished the sheets and towels from a week of visitors. It has been extra windy lately and had to use pegs every two inches to hold things on and it was all drying quickly.  Not a cold wind, but strong.
The reason for the washing, and my absence on the blog, has been the visits from my 3 beautiful grand daughters and their various parents. We started with two adults and one 10 month old, and felt the house shrink with all the baby gear. We enjoyed a day showing her the beach and teaching her about sand. Not a great deal was eaten and she got really excited by the sand properties using her feet something like a dog to paw at the ground!  We visited Brancaster beach for a long walk

 Then Wells beach to have a cup of tea and a sit on the dunes. Wells seems to have lost more sand and there is a big muddy hollow when the tide is out just off the beach huts.
Back home we then were joined by my 10 year old and 8 year old grand daughters for a large family meal, the absent part of the family  happened to phone from London and was greeted by a lot of shouting and giggling.

Sunday despite the wind today I took the two girls to Snettisham beach. We went right from the car park along the nature reserve. Luckily this gives you a little shelter when the wind, which was blowing parallel to the beach, got just too much.  The blackthorn there will be a mass of flowers in the next week or so and the gorse is already in full bloom.  Great shell collecting on the Snettisham beach - my daughter in law was so pleased (not) by a large bucket of treasures collected! The 8 year old watched CBBC over breakfast and someone made a string picture using wool and sewing bobbins.  By lunch time I was able to find enough craft bits and pieces and a string picture was made ready to take home to mummy who had been left behind to do teaching prep (the downfall of being a teacher these days).

Finally everyone departed and the washing of sheets and towels began.

Like Retireewannabe blogger, my early outdoor sowings in the veg garden have been slow to emerge as it has been so dry.  So dry, in fact, on the way from Snettisham to Kings Lynn we witnessed a large dust cloud being lifted off a field by the wind, it coloured the sky a dingy brown for about a mile along the A17.

 Everything in the greenhouse and conservatory is doing well except the brassicas which are all having a problem with damping off. I think the temperatures have varied too much and we have not been quick enough to move them to a cooler spot or keep them damp enough. With the help of the local windows firm we have replaced the broken panes from the greenhouse build (£16 spent which was not too bad) and the greenhouse is now in full production.
The weather forecast is for sunshine for 2 days and we are all prepared and ready to cover the poly tunnel at last.  We started its build in November last year! Though quite sheltered from the direction of the wind in this last few days, the strong winds have prompted more discussion on wind breaks to be developed in the garden in the future. The broad bean plants practically laid horizontal for 2 days but they stood up this morning full of flowers and looked happy enough.
Two plum trees have started to bloom. The variety is Avalon and were planted in November as quite large trees (3 or 4 years old).  All the other fruit is doing well and buds are gradually coming!