Let’s face it, spring is a bit of a hit and miss affair across these islands so it pays to take full advantage when Mother Nature turns up the heat. As soon as Liam returned from family duties in London I bundled him onto a bus for the short hop to Thorpe St Andrew, a pretty riverside spot a mile or three outside town. With Roman scraps, a Scandinavian place-name and a mention in the Domesday Book, the hamlet has ancient roots. Sadly, little survives to this day. Even the church is Victorian Gothic Revival though some ruins of its medieval predecessor, destroyed by fire, still stand.
Thorpe St Andrew is where people go to feed swans and muck about in boats on a sunny day. It’s also where people like me watch people feeding swans and mucking about in boats on a sunny day – from the comfort of a riverside watering hole. So that’s what we did.
Walkers, birders and water sports devotees can catch the little ferry from Thorpe Green to the Whitlingham Country Park, gateway to the Norfolk Broads. There’s no bar there so we gave it a wide berth. Next time, we’ll charge up the hip flask first.
Perking the Pansies 
Do the passenger boats have bars? This might be the answer.
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Unfortunately not 🙂
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Lovely spot. I would first feed the swans and muck about on a boat, then retire to the sideline to join you.
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You’d be very welcome.
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. . it took a while but eventually I understood that it wasn’t the bloody planet and nor was it Freddy resurrecting his career – Quicksilver I am not these days! 😦
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Tis your age. Afflicts us all in the end. 😀
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Lovely spot. We used to camp, no more, it’s comfy beds and air conditioning for us.
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I’ve never stayed in a tent. Well, on this side of the pond it’s usually a damp affair and a mad dash to the toilet block! 😀
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Having become too familiar with the two resident swans where I am moored en ce moment (I have named them Margot and Todd) I have sought out a recipe for swan. You begin with a hummingbird and stuff it inside a sparrow, followed by doing awful things to the rear end of a blackbird… I have printed it out and nailed it up for Margot and Todd to read, inbetween hissing and attacking folk and shagging themselves senseless in plain view (I kid you not). Swans eh?
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Outrageous (the shagging, I mean). You’d think they could do it behind a bush. Ah, the memories 😀
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How beautiful is that. Must have been a wonderful restorative for you both.
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It was and the booze helped! 😀
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`twas ever thus!
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