We is on our holidays!
Forecast today: 21C/68F overcast
Actual weather - pretty cloudy, but perfect weather for driving as there wasn't any bright sunshine to squint into.
I didn't sleep very well last night which really surprised me because we'd walked so far in the daytime. Anyway - we got up around 7.30 and pottered around doing the last of the tidying up and packing before setting off for our holidays at 10am.
We are staying in Suffolk which is around 70 miles from where we live so a nice easy drive throught the countryside. We stopped off in the village of Tiptree (where the farms for the jam are!) and visited the café, shop, tea room and museum of Wilkin & Sons who make Tiptree branded products.
J.S. Wilkin (whose descendants still run the company) started out in jam making back in the early 1700s and have continued on to become family run firm of jam and conserve producers reknown the world over. If you've ever had jam in a hotel you'll usually find it's a Tiptree jam. The museum was free and it was really interesting - full of lethal looking equipment that was used to slice peel or remove stones from fruit. Today the Tiptree brand is still made is small batches and the fruit is grown locally. They boast that their 'Little Scarlet Strawberry' jam is made within hours of it being picked in the fields. They've also branched out into making chutneys and sauces which we could buy in the shop too.
We stayed for a very delicious lunch in their cafe (and bought some preserves of course!). Then it was on to our holiday cottage on the strawberry farm. Now we've settled in, and we've bought some groceries for the week (not that we are planning on cooking much). We've chatted to Youngest Cee and explained how to plug his Playstation in our TV at home *eyeroll* and we will relax this evening.
The electric car took the journey in its stride - we have loads of mileage left but we can charge it for free where we are staying which is handy. The owners here are really keen on green living so we are in their eco-barn conversion with all modern eco-friendly appliances etc. They've invested in an electric car this year and are very pleased as currently there's a run on fuel for cars as the media suggested there could be shortages..... which has sparked panic buying and ....shortages - oy! We passed a lot of petrol stations with very long lines of cars which we happily drove past *g*
Tomorrow we're off to a Tudor Life event at a local historic hall which will be fun. Apparently we will be spirited back to 1599 with over 100 contributors going about their daily life which we can watch and interact with! Sounds like fun!
I have a question for the day: 25. How often do you go to the beach?
In normal times we would go down a few times a year as Eldest Cee lives near the beach on the South Coast of England.
Actual weather - pretty cloudy, but perfect weather for driving as there wasn't any bright sunshine to squint into.
I didn't sleep very well last night which really surprised me because we'd walked so far in the daytime. Anyway - we got up around 7.30 and pottered around doing the last of the tidying up and packing before setting off for our holidays at 10am.
We are staying in Suffolk which is around 70 miles from where we live so a nice easy drive throught the countryside. We stopped off in the village of Tiptree (where the farms for the jam are!) and visited the café, shop, tea room and museum of Wilkin & Sons who make Tiptree branded products.
J.S. Wilkin (whose descendants still run the company) started out in jam making back in the early 1700s and have continued on to become family run firm of jam and conserve producers reknown the world over. If you've ever had jam in a hotel you'll usually find it's a Tiptree jam. The museum was free and it was really interesting - full of lethal looking equipment that was used to slice peel or remove stones from fruit. Today the Tiptree brand is still made is small batches and the fruit is grown locally. They boast that their 'Little Scarlet Strawberry' jam is made within hours of it being picked in the fields. They've also branched out into making chutneys and sauces which we could buy in the shop too.
We stayed for a very delicious lunch in their cafe (and bought some preserves of course!). Then it was on to our holiday cottage on the strawberry farm. Now we've settled in, and we've bought some groceries for the week (not that we are planning on cooking much). We've chatted to Youngest Cee and explained how to plug his Playstation in our TV at home *eyeroll* and we will relax this evening.
The electric car took the journey in its stride - we have loads of mileage left but we can charge it for free where we are staying which is handy. The owners here are really keen on green living so we are in their eco-barn conversion with all modern eco-friendly appliances etc. They've invested in an electric car this year and are very pleased as currently there's a run on fuel for cars as the media suggested there could be shortages..... which has sparked panic buying and ....shortages - oy! We passed a lot of petrol stations with very long lines of cars which we happily drove past *g*
Tomorrow we're off to a Tudor Life event at a local historic hall which will be fun. Apparently we will be spirited back to 1599 with over 100 contributors going about their daily life which we can watch and interact with! Sounds like fun!
I have a question for the day: 25. How often do you go to the beach?
In normal times we would go down a few times a year as Eldest Cee lives near the beach on the South Coast of England.