This week
The Bayfield Hall Sculpture Trail closes on Sunday 18 October, so this is the last weekend to see it: work by more than 45 artists in the grounds and woods of Bayfield Hall, ten minutes from the cottage, open 10am to 5pm.
Looking ahead
The Autumn Steam Gala on the North Norfolk Railway is next weekend, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October, at Sheringham and Holt stations, with seven locomotives in steam each day. The star is Furness Railway No 20, built in 1863 and Britain’s oldest working steam locomotive, on its first visit to the Poppy Line; it will pull the railway’s own Victorian carriages. The clocks go back that night, so Saturday’s trains run on into the early evening, with steam after dark. Holt station is about ten minutes’ drive from the cottage.
The clocks go back on Sunday 25 October: an extra hour in bed, and longer evenings by the fire.
Half term follows. Pensthorpe, near Fakenham, has its Pumpkin Festival from 23 October to 1 November, and Holkham’s Halloween Garden is on in the Walled Garden from 27 to 31 October, 10am to 3pm.
And from the end of October the grey seals start to pup on Blakeney Point, England’s largest grey seal colony. The first pups usually arrive in early November, and around 4,000 are born each winter. The boat trips from Morston are the easiest way to see them. If you walk out along the Point, keep to the rangers’ fences, keep your distance, and leave the dog at home.
Spinks Nest is a cottage for two, and the dog. For a late autumn stay, check dates.