Category Archives: rambling

Holkham Beach April 2025

#backtothehills, hiking/backpacking/camping, outdoors, rambling, Walking

Yesterday the weather was perfect for me.

Not too hot, not too cold.

A perfect spring day in fact.

Made more so with the fact it was my day off.

So after what can best be described as a relaxed start to the day, Dolly and I made off for destinations unknown.

Well I had possibilities. A return to Roydon Common? Maybe the coast? If the coast where? Heacham or Holkham?

Eventually as we drove round Kings Lynn a decision was made.

Apple Maps was instructed to guide us to Holkham beach.

The last time I was on Holkham beach it was with Strider, over a decade ago.

It was when Strider and I spent the night on the beach. The morning was magical. I took my favourite photo of Strider (see above) as the glow of the dawn sun began to start warming us up.

Since that magical time with Strider I have not been back.

But yesterday was about Dolly and introducing her to this beautiful piece of the Norfolk coast.

After leaving the car park and crossing into this national nature reserve Dolly was off the lead.

We followed the path that put the woodland between us and the beach.

Dolly was amazing off the lead. Even when there were other dogs.

It’s rude not to share
Dolly discovers ice cream
Signs of eco vandalism aka bushcrafting
Why we can’t have nice things
Decision time
ZZTop mode

We walked about a mile, which took us to the second hide, and the farthest edge of the woods, before we followed the path to the beach.

It was rather windy on the beach. A complete contrast to the sheltered path we had just come from.

We walked towards the sea. Which was out. Way way out.

We didn’t make it to the sea, maybe three quarters of the way before heading back.

But Dolly did really enjoy being on the sand.

There was no way we were going to walk along the beach into a head wind back to the car.

Instead we used the woodland to give us shelter from the wind a provide a rest spot.

While Dolly topped up on water and beef jerky. I too had water (no fires – Kelly kettle out, or camping stoves allowed to protect the nature reserve), and cheese and biscuits.

After that brief stop we followed the some of the many paths that cut through the woodland. The majority spanning the width of the woodland connecting the beach and dunes with the path on the opposite side.

Back at the car park we dropped our stuff off at the car and made our way the very short distance back to the ice cream van. Where I bought Dolly and myself an ice cream.

Dolly was unsure about her ice cream to start with. But she soon over came that uncertainty and decided she really liked it.

On our drive home on the road boarding the Holkham hall estate I saw a massive red kite. Such a beautiful buzzard.

I think Dolly enjoyed her afternoon at the beach.

Chillin’ in the woods

hiking/backpacking/camping, outdoors, rambling, Walking

As I was throwing stuff together for todays walk a shower hit. This was the turn for the worse I was expecting for the week.

It was definitely feeling a bit chillier.

But the cold and rain were not going to put me (or Dolly) off going on our walk.

By the time we hit the A47 I’d decided our destination would be back to the woodlands at Roydon Common.

Dolly was off lead for the majority of this walk, and she was really well behaved.

We explored a couple of side paths.

Which gave me a better picture of the woods. I collected a little birch bark to use as tinder.

Some of which I used to start the fire in today’s stove. Oh the stove I was using was the Kelly Kettle Trekker.

Part of these brew stops is getting Dolly used to being off lead, not wandering off, and chilling out.

I enjoyed using the Kelly Kettle. Well playing with fire (responsibly) is fun.

I didn’t mess around I used my bic lighter to start the fire. The wood I was using was some kindling I bought recently from a petrol station. Plus some twigs I’d gathered over 10 years ago!

Dolly is really sure now that she likes beef jerky! As if there was any doubt. But the jerky does make a nice treat for her during our brew stop. Plus I can have a bit too.

We had been very lucky with the weather because our walk and brew stops had no sign of rain. In fact there was some hint of the sun breaking through and blue skies!

In our wandering some of the paths we followed were definitely deer paths. I even saw a Muntjac ahead of us at one point. One such path revealed what was a “pond” that was obviously a source of water for the local wildlife. Surprisingly it was close to the actual main path, but not visible from that path.

Yeah we had a fun chill walk in the woods again.

More ramblings

D&D, D&D Grp2, Gloom Chronicles, life, the universe, and everything, Marvel Champions, rambling, RPG, session planning, still alive

Well just like politics a day in my life can be a long time, and things change.

The next session arranged for Saturday has had to be cancelled due to a union work thing that has cropped up.

However it looks like it may go ahead Monday (currently my day off!) evening instead. I’m still on lates next week, so I don’t have to worry about getting up for a damn early start the next morning.

So there is a silver lining to this cloud.

It would appear that soon (next payday) I will be jumping into the lcg from FFG, Marvel Champions.

Hence the new little icon thingy I’ve done.

I did enjoy the game when I did the “try before you buy” game with Gavin. And it is his copy with expansions I’m buying.

I also think this is a game I can play with Nathan that I’m pretty sure he will enjoy. I’m not sure I’ve played a co-op game with Nath. But I know just from the theme alone he will love it. And I’m excited that I will be able to play this with him.

Buying Marvel Champions does boot into the distance any decision I was going to make about getting into another FFG lcg The Lord of the Rings Card Game. Which does also appeal to me on theme alone.

We know I like the idea of solo gaming, and when I see a game can be played solo it does help sell the game to me. But when it comes to actual reality I very rarely play a game solo. I think I can count on one hand the games I’ve played solo. So I’ll never (ok I know never say never) play Marvel Champions solo.

Another given is in the coming months once Marvel Champions has joined my collection I will be catching up with the expansions I don’t have. It’s that whole Pokémon “got to catch ‘em all” thing.

Bugger they also have playmats for the game. And we know how I am about playmats.

I better order in a lot of sleeves. I usually go Mayday Premium with boardgames. But this technically is a card game so I may fall back to my other preferred brand Dragon Shield Matt sleeves. The ones I use for playing MtG.

Before I look for players willing to commit to playing the campaign version of Gloom, The Gloom Chronicles, I need to get the two expansions that I currently do not own.

Obviously The Gloom Chronicles uses the core game. But it also needs Unfortunate Expeditions, Unquiet Dead (need to get), Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall, Unhappy Homes (need to get), and Unwelcome Guests.

It’s a twenty game campaign. It should be possible to play multiple games a session. I don’t see it being much of a commitment, three or four sessions at most.

I’m very intrigued how Gloom plays as a campaign. It’s a story based game. Well technically if players are not into the story side can be played as just a card game. I know other games like Scythe, Pandemic, etc have campaigns that are tied together by an over all story. But that’s a story written by the designer. Gloom is a different animal altogether. The storytelling is part of the game.

I definitely want to get Gloom to the table sooner than later for sure. Especially around the end of the month. I don’t do Halloween but if that isn’t the time to at least play the game once I don’t know when is.

A Rambling Wednesday Update

life, the universe, and everything, rambling, still alive

The September monthly stats will go live on the last day of the month. I suppose they could have gone live now. It’s not as if I will have played any more games before October starts.

Being one of those glass half empty doom merchants I don’t think October will be a massive month for playing games.

October starts at the weekend with a D&D session. But after that my next bit of gaming will be the following Friday with the next Fenland Gamers session.

My next day off is a Monday when our hosts are not open. Plus I’ve not had much luck getting others interested in gaming on days I’m off. So even if they were open I don’t think I’d find others to game with.

That’s the drawback of my current job with my shifting days off during the week.

So far I’ve been lucky that I can make the Friday evening sessions.

It also makes it harder to arrange things. I should know three weeks in advance what my rota is. But at the moment I know what I’m working up to the end of next week and that’s it. I’m on lates for this and next week. Which I like working.

I do have a weeks holiday next month as well. I’m hoping to visit Nathan then. So that will be quality time together gaming.

But for the next five months I do have a week off each month, as until that week off I’ve only had one days holiday this year.

I was watching The Dice Tower Autumn Spectacular – Top 10 Horror Games last night.

It reminded me although I own them I still haven’t got Fury of Dracula nor Ghost Stories to the table. Plus The Others appeared on a couple of the lists, and now I want to get that back to the table.

The Others has the dubious distinction of putting me off ever backing or buying a CMoN game again. Or I should clarify it was the Kickstarter campaign CMoN ran for it and not the game itself (which I really enjoyed).

But one omission from the four top ten lists the Dice Tower contributors came up with for me was Gloom.

Which I have played once. But I really do need to get back to the table (especially now I have the fancy storage box, Gloomier, and Gloom Chronicles from the last Kickstarter) as I think there are others in Fenland Gamers that would also enjoy playing it.

10th October sees a World Mental Health Day.

I’m going to try and “celebrate” it with a post. I don’t know how the post will come out. That will all depend on the day I suppose.

That’s it for now. See you in the next post.