Suffolk

Another totally brilliant weekend in Suffolk, staying with Rick and Justin. With the half term weather proving to be total pants in the south east, there were only so many movies we could watch at home and in the cinema (loved Madagascar 3 and Hotel Transyvania), and only so many games of Who Am I? and Rat-A-Tat Cat we could play. So the girls and I headed off on Friday morning, leaving Rob to catch the train up on Saturday morning. It was an easy, traffic-free drive up and the weather on arrival was crisp, cold and sunny. We drove straight to Ickworth, the National Trust house and park, close to the boys' cottage in Hargrave. Being half term, the brilliant minds at the National Trust had set up a 20-challenge kids trail through the woods, which took us a couple of hours to complete and included loud singing, star jumps, spotting snails, solving maths problems and anagrams. By the time we finished, the sun was yawning in anticipation of popping into bed, so we hit the cafe for the world's largest slice of Victoria Sponge, a scone, clotted cream and jam and a pot of tea (yum yum).  When we left it was pitch black and we half walked, half ran shrieking back to the car, standing almost alone in the car park. Onwards then to Smart Fox cottage, where a huge fire was blazing, fresh pasta sauce was being created in the kitchen and all was well in the world.

On Saturday, we went up to Easter Wood for lunch and to get a few sacks of firewood to bring back to Hastings.  Justin let the girls take the controls of the tractor, which  they loved. The tractor also proved useful when Rick reversed the car, already stuck in mud, into a ditch. Once the car was retrived, and Rob was collected from the station in Newmarket, we settled into the hut in the wood (wood burning stove pumping out the heat) for homemade pumpkin and tomato soup with bread, cheese, giant pork pie and home made piccalilli. Fantastic.

Justin then changed into his action trousers, special boots and hard hat and became king of the wood with his chainsaw, making light work of a pile of logs for us.

Back at the cottage, we debated whether any of us could be bothered to make the short journey to nearby Barrow, for the fireworks, it being close to November 5. At the very last minute, Justin, Rob, the girls and I jumped in the car and arrived at just as the fireworks started. Health and Safety rules meant we were kept at  a precautionary 30 miles from the fire (yawn) but the fireworks were brilliant, and lasting only 10 minutes, we were soon back in front of the fire at Smart Fox Cottage in time for Strictly Come Dancing. A feast of a dinner - French bean and pork cassoulet awaited us - and once the kids were in bed, the grown ups enjoyed hilarious after hilarious rounds of Pit.
On Sunday, after heading to Frank and Debbie's house for an amazing roast pork lunch, it was time for us to start our drive home. Only moments after joining the M11, we ground to a halt and stayed that way for the next 90 minutes. Luckily our tummies were full, the girls had their DVD players, I had the papers and Rob watched Revolutionary Road on the iPad, so everyone was happy. The tailback was caused by a 12-car pile up, that we eventually passed some time later. We finally got home at 9pm, instead of the sat nav's predicted time of 6.30pm.   No matter, a wonderful and as always restful and fun weekend.