OK, it wasn't this strange colour. But apart from that, this conjures up the forthright solidity of the Norman keep pretty well. It's definitely worth a visit if you find your self near King's Lynn. Castle Rising village is also really pretty - with a lovely church and great cake in the tearooms.

These were what I mother's peonies finally looked like in June. See earlier posts for some stages along the way

Modern agriculture has made a big dent in the number of poppies you see around the countryside at this time of year. This is what it must have been like: a field in Lord Melchett's organic Courtyard Farm, near Ringstead in north Norfolk, snapped last week as I cycled by.

I visited this magical place in north Norfolk recently when the gardens were open to the public under the NGS. The house was built around 1500, while the moat is 12th Century. It was one of those really heavy, humid days after overnight rain which lent an extra dimension of atmosphere to an already atmospheric site and you had this almost palpable sense of past centuries hanging all around.

For truly wonderful photography of North Norfolk look no further than Andrew Midgley. You can buy his work at the Photographers Gallery in Holt - http://www.photographersgallery-holt.com/ - and see a selection on his website - http://andrewmidgley.photography.com/. The salt marshes, the beaches, the wide open fields and the big blue sky... they are all here. 

www.Burningwell.org is a source of public domain images I haven't come across before so delighted to give them a plug. This is one of theirs.