Last summer we spent a lot of time in Norfolk, just like we have the two previous years, but this time the weather was great (I’m looking at you summer of 2021) and life was back to normal. So we did our absolute best to enjoy it!
We had friends to stay, we went to the beach as much as we possibly could, squeezed in some golf (I’m learning but it’s lovely in summer), had picnics and sundowners on the beach and many a dip in the salty and refreshing (ahem) North Sea.
Norfolk reminds me a lot of Sweden in summer with its sandy beaches (I don’t think I will ever get used to a pebbly beach), beach huts and overall similar lifestyle. It’s so different to our London life and a real tonic to have dinner outside in the garden, cook most meals on the barbecue, go out on friends’ boats and walk around barefoot.
Even though it’s summer as I’m writing this, these pictures make me so nostalgic, so this post is a lot for myself to look back on. But for the rest of you, if you haven’t visited Norfolk yet, put it on your list!
Brancaster beach
Barbecue dinners at home
Boating with friends
Tea and cake in the sunshine
Candy floss skies
Golden hour golf
Happy!
Pannacotta with strawberries
Marshside at The White Horse in Brancaster Staithe
Sundowners
Lavender galore at Norfolk Lavender
Nibbles and wine on the beach post swim
Magical sunsets
I can’t believe it took me a whole year to finish this post – hope to be back with a summer 2024 recap soon!
Last summer was truly wonderful, and I feel the need to write it down, partly so I can remember the magic but also to tell you all about it as I wasn’t exactly good at updates in real time.
I must confess it feels a bit weird to rave about last summer when it almost IS summer again, but at the same time I LOVE the summer and 2022 was a particular good one. One for the books. It probably has a lot to do with the pandemic, me feeling this way, but last summer felt like the first summer in a while where we could just go back to normal. I could go to Sweden and enjoy the theatre and a dinner out with my parents like we used to, and it was the best feeling to be able to do that again.
On the whole we didn’t actually do that much, no big trips or lavish holidays. But spending time in Sweden and Norfolk (and travel around a little in Sweden and Denmark) was more than enough for us. Spending time on the beach by our summer house in Sweden gave me so much joy, and towards the end of my stay the sea heated up enough for swimming. It felt like forever ago I could swim in the sea there (I mean it was three years ago) and I will certainly try not to take it for granted again.
Norfolk was equally lovely. We spent a lot of time at the beach there too, swimming in the North Sea, going out on a boating adventure with friends. One evening we had a lovely picnic by the beach huts after a few holes of golf, an evening dip and sundowners on the sand dunes. We really tried to squeeze in as much as possible!
For my birthday we went to Paris for a few days and it was magical! The weather was perfect, the food insanely good and of course – it was romantic too!
In between our weeks here and there we came back to London, and I must confess I love London in summer too. Drinks in beer gardens and strolls in the parks buying a Mr Whippy when you walk past an ice cream van. Barbecues with friends and so on. And, we went to concerts again, which was wonderful! I also got to see a play I have waited years for, Jerusalem, and it was simply magnificent.
We had talked about booking a proper holiday somewhere at the end of summer, beginning of autumn but we didn’t feel the need after all the fun we had. It helped a lot that the weather was nice and that we can both work from anywhere, but I think it’s the first time I have felt like that (at least since I was a child and had endlessly long summer breaks) and it was the nicest feeling! Thank you, summer 2022, for everything!
Scandelights 