Go west… but not too west

After vowing never, ever and under no circumstances at all would I move away from the airfield and ‘my’ corner of Norfolk, I’ve done just that.

The move happened back in April but many boxes are still unpacked, cupboards in disarray and clothes still in bin bags – but on the plus side a bee-friendly garden is emerging, we are eating our home-grown vegetables and most nights the sky seems to be showing off around us.

This corner of west Norfolk is tucked away. It’s not on a road to anywhere and it’s heaven. We have Tawny Owls arguing with each other over territory at night, bats leave the roof to catch moths in the torchlight and Red Kites and Buzzards are over and around every day.

Like my old house, the beach is within easy reach and the glorious stretch of sand and mudflats at Holkham is close by. It’s a beautiful beach but in my view nowhere can top the carefree, easy-going swimming at Overstrand.

This part of Norfolk is criss-crossed with some wonderful footpaths and they never seem to be busy. The chalk is never far from the surface around here and appears on most of the paths in some form or another. It’s wilder here, too. More scrubland, more reedbeds where Marsh Harriers glide over the head-high Norfolk reed, curlews call as the tide ebbs and the skies seem vast – even by Norfolk standards.

I cannot believe my luck to be living here. I thought the airfield and its associations with my family could never be bettered, but it was their lives I was connecting with, and not my own to some extent. This is different now. It’s my life that I’m carving out here, with memories that I am making in a territory new to me and I could not be happier. I think the moral of this is listen to the Village People for life advice and Go West – but not too far.