Magic Cochin unplugged – day 1

I've spent four days unplugged – sans internet, sans computer, sans everything teckie (and for most of the time sans a signal on my mobile phone!) I've been in North-east Norfolk, leaving the under-gardeners in charge of the garden and studio assistants in charge of Cliff.

And I left the rain behind too – in Norfolk it was still sunny! My first stop was the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia to see the Cloth and Culture NOW exhibition. The exhibits by 35 artists from six countries are extraordinary – knitting, felt making, patchwork, embroidery, tapestry – but executed in such exciting ways and using all sorts of materials.

My second stop was Blickling Hall – the stunning mansion once owned by the Boleyn family and by legend, the birth place of Anne Boleyn and the home of her headless ghost! As the weather was so glorious I spent the afternoon in the gardens where the wisteria was in exuberant bloom . . .


and the yew topiary, like giant green eggs in egg cups, shimmered in the hazy heat . . .


I sat and sketched in my favourite spot – the cool shade of the vast spreading plane tree, with its serpent-like limbs writhing out of a pool of bluebells and wild flowers.


My final stop was Bramble House B & B at Cats Common, Smallburgh in Broadland near Wroxham, where I had a comfy room with this beautiful view.