Friday 27th September we had another fabulous Oasis day out in the grounds of North Norfolk’s Bayfield Hall. I have to say this visit nearly didn’t happen, I had my eye on the weather forecast and every time I looked it seemed to be getting worse, amber rain warnings, wind gusting to 50+ mph, anyway after consulting others and having a word with myself decided to take a chance and still go ahead with the visit, as the saying goes “a life without risk is no life at all”. As always we met in the café, refreshments and chat were enjoyed by Serena, Robin, Andrea, Jaqui, Lilly, Lorraine and myself Theresa along with doggie Penny, love the cosy atmosphere in the Wildflower Café.
Seeing the rain had cleared we headed off to the grounds and located the beginning of the sculpture trail, starting with exhibit no.1 of course, we had a map to help locate the 45 exhibits and were determined to see the whole lot during the course of the afternoon.
Half way round we stopped for lunch, back to the café for more delicious food and drinks with a warm welcome from the lovely staff. While sitting chatting we also enjoyed seeing a few different species of small birds eating from hanging feeders, a surprising large number of them actually, we tried our best to identify them but not so easy with zero phone signal or Wifi. Adjacent to the café are the wildflower gardens, somewhere to visit another time next summer hopefully.
Moving on we made our way back to the trail, hoods up in the rain but we were having fun which the rain did not dampen.
Such a varied range of exhibits were spread around the beautiful grounds of the Hall and old ruined abbey. Some exhibits were interactive, some interesting, some scary, some pleasing to the eye and some just meh, everyone has their own taste and opinions but whether you see each piece of work as good, bad or indifferent you can’t deny that art enhances our human lives, it certainly did for me that day.
I think we finished the whole trail before someone said “teas up”, back to the café to round off the day in our favourite spot. Also a chance to visit the harvest mice kept in glass enclosures in a building next to the toilet block, they are so small and cute, a joy to watch as they scurry around amongst the long grass in their natural looking environment.
I’m sure we would have stayed longer but the café closing at 5:00pm meant time to say goodbyes and head off to our scattered locations in Norfolk, Suffolk and Somewhere (Jaqui). So glad the day went ahead as planned.
See you at another fabulous interesting venue soon. Theresa x
oasis norfolk 