The magnificent art collection of Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, was sold to Catherine the Great in 1779 to adorn the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Over 70 paintings from the collection, including works by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Velazquez, Poussin and Murillo are now reassembled for the first time in 230 years for display in their original setting for this unmissable blockbuster exhibition.

Houghton Hall was designed to house Walpole’s prized collection of Old Masters, and the magnificent interiors and furnishings designed by William Kent are still intact. The paintings in the Houghton Revisited exhibition will be hung in their original positions in the State Rooms, bringing them back to the splendour of more than two centuries ago.

Tickets to the exhibition (which also includes entry to the public areas of the Hall, the beautiful gardens and grounds) are £18 for Adults, £10 for Children, £46 for Family (2 adults & 2 children).

NB – There are limited number of half price family tickets available for the May and August bank holidays (10 for each day).

For more information, visit www.houghtonrevisited.com.

Everyone is welcome to this major contemporary art exhibition which features new work by more than 120 artists from Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, including installations, textiles, sculpture, pottery, paintings, photographs and video.

Curated by Yvonne and John Millwood, ART ALIVE! is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday and entrance to the exhibition is free.

For more information on this must-see event, click here to visit the website.

Grabbed this lovely photo of Blickling Hall last night as I drove past. This year the gravel path leading up to the front door is lined with Christmas trees and the Yew Tree hedge has been lit up in green. Almost every car was slowing down to get a good look. Simply beautiful!

There’s lots going on at the Hall over the first three weekends of Decemeber. Read the publicity leaflet here. For more general information, go to the Blickling Hall Estate page.

This year’s switch-on offers many of the usual events and activities to celebrate the occasion, but also some new things to see and do. Most importantly, the celebrity this year is Olympic torch bearer (and local lad), Harry Heathfield. Harry will switch on the lights and lead with Gentleman Jim for the Christmas Procession which leaves the Holt Community Centre at 5:30pm.

There’s a full programme on stage, hosted as usual by North Norfolk Radio, which includes Fakenham Town Band, Holt Barber Shop Choir, the Cromer Pier Show performers and Gresham School Choir and the Barber Shop. Razz and Pearl will also be in the Community Centre with their show starting at 5:30pm and then, at 6:15pm, they take their show around the town.

New for 2012 we have the Polar Express and the Snow Queen. The Reindeer will be at Fish Hill and a climbing wall for older kids. There’ll be lots of stalls and locally provided hot food and drink, activities and competitions to take part in too.

This year, the theme is Christmas Baubles and you can easily take part in this by buying Holt’s own Bauble Badges and taking part in “The Bauble Trail” which tests your skills in finding 13 Baubles around the town. There’ll be cash prizes for the winners and the competition is free. Bauble Trail forms are available at www.holtchristmaslights.org.

There will be a short fireworks display at switch on (6:45pm). If you are a pet owner please make sure your four legged friend is safely cosy – away from the lights and the bangs.

One of my passions is wandering around damp woods with my camera, through the falling leaves of Autumn scattered in sunshine. There’s nothing quite lie it. And hunting for fungi is the perfect excuse…

See also http://www.norfolkholidaycottages.biz/blog/2011/11/fungi-hunting-in-norfolk/

Just a quick reminder that Corpusty Bonfire (and Fireworks) Night is on Saturday 3rd November this year (2012). Always a great night (see http://www.norfolkholidaycottages.biz/blog/2011/10/beach-to-bonfire-night/). Please donate generously! It takes a great amount of time, effort and cost to put them on every year. For more information, visit the Corpusty Bonfire Night group page at Facebook.

As before, the eight days of COAST are timed to coincide with the schools’ autumn half-term holiday and to help prolong the seaside season. With a scheduled programme of some eighty events, we are confident expectations are not going to be disappointed. There is another rich mix of entertainment and stimulation on offer – of music, art, film, performance, talks and – particularly for youngsters – lots of hands on stuff.

If the idea of eighty events going on in a little over a week sounds a bit too much of a good thing, it’s worth remembering that many are exhibitions and activities that carry on throughout the Festival. With the one-off performances, the programme organisers have taken extra care this time round to eliminate the timetable clashes that can cause frustration – no one can be in two places at the same time.

Geographically, COAST’s venues stretch from Overstrand in the east to Sheringham in the west, with all points in between. To make navigation between them easier for visitors, the programme booklet will cluster events around four hubs: Cromer, the Runtons, Overstrand, and Sheringham. And a high proportion of the one-off events will be staged in five main venues: Sheringham Little Theatre, Cromer Community Hall (Centre), Virginia Court Hotel, Oddfellows Hall, and Overstrand Church.

Lots of hard work and commitment from their small team of dedicated volunteers helps to ensure a quality and diverse programme. And recognition and support from agencies like Norfolk Coast Partnership, NNDC Big Society, Norfolk County Council, Cromer and Sheringham Town Councils, and Overstrand and Runton Parish Councils, all help to ensure that over 70% of events are completely free of charge.

It’s always invidious to single out particular events from such a big spread, but one or two things this year command special mention. I’m thinking particularly of the respective offerings by uncle and niece, Harvey and Fiona Pitcher. Harvey is a Russian scholar and translator and has been a Cromer resident since the early 1970s. At 3.30pm on 29 October at Virginia Court Hotel, he’ll be reading his translations of some of Anton Chekhov’s early comic short stories. Chekhov recalled his youthful time as a medical student: ‘First, I’d make my patients laugh. Then I’d treat them’.

The following day, at 2.00pm in Sheringham Little Theatre, Fiona Pitcher, probably best known in these parts as the creator and executive producer of BBC2’s annual wild life documentary, ‘Springwatch’, will be taking us behind the scenes of her ten-year career as a TV director and journalist, and entertaining us with clips from some of her most notable programmes. Her work as a television editor in the field of natural history has taken her to Africa and many foreign parts, but she’ll also be recounting how ‘Springwatch’ came home to Norfolk.