This was a split-start holiday, with Jeremy committed in Bedford on Saturday for a cricket coaching course. It started badly with a text from Tesco saying they'd cancelled our order(!), but we arranged a click-and-collect on the way. That meant we drove to Thetford for 6pm, and then on to Mendham Mill, arriving about quarter past 7. We explored the house – three storeys – ate dinner and even explored the games room (pool, pingpong and darts) before finally deciding it was time for bed.
The weather was bright (though chilly) so we went to the coast. We drove to Southwold and picnicked on the sea front. It was high tide (and high waves) so no-one fancied going in the water; instead we had an icecream and a round of putting on the putting green (Matthew got a hole-in-one for which he was awarded a lolly) before going to play on the pier. Everyone enjoyed the silly arcade games; then we stopped off at the tiny Tesco to top up on things the big Tesco shop had failed to supply.
Back at the house, we found the gym then went back to the games room unti Jeremy arrived, very ready for a holiday!
We went back to the coast, but to Walberswick this time. We started out crabbing, with great success. Laura caught her first ever (and it was a very frisky one, quite keen on getting out of the bucket); Matthew got a small one and the biggest of the catch.
We picnicked on a dune overlooking the sea. Then we walked along the short, then cut in to Dunwich Heath before returning to Walberswick along an inland waterway.
When we got home there was more games room time; and Laura found a duck nesting inside a hollow (but living) tree!
The weather was less promising today, so we stayed local. There was jigsaw, games room, and tyre swing; we had lunch in the cottage; then we went out on our bikes for a 20km loop. The most exciting part was a "Road Closed" sign that we merrily cycled past – and did turn out to be still open for bikes, but part of the road had fallen into the river.
When we got back the children watched a film while roast dinner roasted.
This was predicted to be our warmest day (though overcast) so we drove to Covehithe to try out the sea. It was chilly and the children didn't last long in there with their bodyboards. Helen managed a quick paddle too, then we wrapped everyone back up and headed along the coast to Dunwich. There is a renowned fish and chip shop in the beach carpark which is open until 3pm... we arrived at 2.45 and got takeaway for lunch. We ate facing the sea, then had fun throwing stones and even skimming some.
When we got back we took two Mendham Mill canoes for a paddle downstream. You can go as far as the next mill along before you meet a portage point and have to lift your boat if you want to go any further. We didn't so we didn't. We were shepherded past one section by a very puffed-up swan – clearly making sure we left its area without causing any trouble!
We decided that crabbing was such fun we should do it again, so we packed our picnic and headed back to Walberswick. It was a bit windier than last time, and Matthew only got one tiny one, but Laura caught three decent crabs reasonably quickly. We released them and ate our lunch in a sheltered spot right by the harbourfront.
After lunch Laura fancied a tiny bit more crabbing, and discovered that they like hiding in the seaweed by the sea wall. She caught four in the space of about four minutes to complete our crabbing; we got back in the car just as it started to rain.
On the way home it brightened up again, and we explored Blythburgh church – which is enormous and has a priest's hole up a tiny spiral staircase – and then found a little loop walk around the village, complete with tyre swing. Matthew and Jeremy stopped at the local field for some football on the way home.
This was our last full day of holiday so we were determined to make something of it; but of course the weather had other ideas. We abandoned the idea of canoeing because of the wind, and instead packed a picnic and headed to Southwold. We ate on one of the tables next to the pier, and had to abandon our perch twice because of squalls of rain. We visited the under-the-pier show during the rain breaks! After the second time we dropped the bags back to the car and retreated to the Café on the Green for hot drinks and cakes. The weather improved, so we did the putting green again (all doing much better than last time), and both children and Jeremy got a hole in one. We just completed it before the heavens opened again!
We drove to Dunwich Forest for a walk in the afternoon, parking at Frederick's Mount and heading into the woods for a loop. It was extremely windy but we didn't get rained on. We were navigating on phones, which turned out to be a mistake when they all ran out of battery. We found ourselves at Potton Hall, which is a café, spa and recording studio. They didn't have any maps (or phone chargers of the right kind) but they did have a computer so they let us have a look at Google Maps (and take a photo of the map) so we could work out our way back to the car.
In the evening we enjoyed the games room again, ate up everything in the fridge, and finished the jigsaw.
We had to be out of the mill by 10, but it was a beautiful day so we just couldn't go straight home. Instead we went to Beccles Lido (which was almost deserted: this was the last day of school term for the schools in the area) where the children enjoyed the diving board in the sun.
We came back to the Black Swan in Homersfield for lunch before driving home, back in plenty of time to collect the cat before Friday Squash.
