Southwold & Thorpeness

Earlier in May we had a long weekend with friends in Southwold. We stayed in a 1930s house which although a little dated had bathrooms for each bedroom, a well equipped kitchen and great dining table. We could see the sea which was just a short stroll to the sea and had a great view of the lighthouse from our bedroom.

The weather was glorious, if a little breezy but that's expected on the east coast. The views from the Pier were amazing, across the sea and along the coast. On the Pier we discovered this quirky clock made by Tim Hunkin and Will Jackson in the late 1990s, it was very intricate but unfortunately wasn't working when we were there.
 

One reason for our short break, the main one being the getaway, was for the chaps to do a tour of Adnams brewery. I have visited many breweries so decided to chill at the house with the girls and a lovely bottle of wine.

It sounded like they had a great time and tried many of the beers, Broadside and Adnams stout being top choices. I enjoyed Broadside too when we visited one of the many pubs in Southwold and we did bring some stout home to try.

Adnams had a super shop and cafe at the top of the town. We had a great lunch together before the chaps' tour. Hubby and I shared the fish platter, a delicious selection which we accompanied with a can of wine. I'm not a great fan of wine in a can but Vinca was lovely and one I will look out for again. 

As mentioned we bought some stout home, along with some other beers (we had a free tea towel with the Broadside). We also bought new glasses as I really liked the beer glass size and shape and having bought Adnams' gin and whisky a matching glass was a must.

We all returned to Adnams cafe on our final morning to enjoy a breakfast together before making our separate ways home. We sat in an old mash tun and as with lunch the food was delicious.

Whilst wandering Southwold we popped in to see the church, such a surprise inside was the ancient rood screen with beautiful paintings. The church is dedicated to St Edmund and is full of history, I loved Southwold Jack, a 15th century clock jack with an axe and bell.

On the Sunday we took a short drive to Thorpness, home of the House in the Clouds. J. M. Barrie who wrote Peter Pan loved this quaint village with its windmill and boating lake. It was so peaceful even with many visitors. After a stroll around we had a fabulous Sunday dinner at the pub before returning to Southwold for an evening in with good wine and a game of cards. 

Our long weekend in Southwold was great, it's a place we would visit again and if it wasn't so far east would consider moving too. It is always good fun to holiday with our friends and this weekend was no exception with plenty of laughs, good food and flowing drinks ... cheers and here's to our next adventure together. 

Anglesey Abbey

On our way to our recent long weekend in Southwold with friends we called by Anglesey Abbey. It's a National Trust property that we have visited before but being NT members it was a perfect rest stop being midway of our journey.

Although now where near North Wales it does have a vague link to being an Abbey as it was converted in the 13th century to a priory after being the Hospital of St Mary founded in 1135 by Henry I.

The Dissolution during Henry VIII rule saw the end of the priory and the Abbey was left to decay, some of its stone being used nearby by John Hynde for his new mansion Madingley Hall.

In 1609 the Fowkes family acquired the property and began renovating it back into a habitable dwelling.

After decades of the house changing through various families it became the property of Lord Fairhaven in 1932. He lived at the Abbey until his death 1966 when it was taken over by the National Trust.

There are many interesting rooms in the Abbey along with a huge amount paintings and various objects.

It was quite difficult to photograph because of reflections but this beaded fire screen was stunning. As was the ornate pineapple clock which chimes on the hour and all the pineapples open out, we were not there at the right time to see this unfortunately.

The artwork and design was so intricately especially this ceiling made of plaster with beautiful coats of arms and motifs. 

The embroidery (again hard to photograph) was a section of an alter cloth, now behind glass as a wall hanging.

Upstairs all the bedrooms were plush, especially Queen Elizabeth's Room, this was where the Queen Mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon used to stay.

The Upper Gallery is an vast display of painting of Windsor Castle, each by a different artist and from all view points. It's an amazing display, some are by very well known artists. Lord Fairhaven seems to have had a fascination with this iconic Castle, there are many more such paintings in storage.

Downstairs in the Abbey was a huge walk in safe where the silverware was kept. The kitchens and working rooms had a 1930s to 1950s feel about them, especially the store cupboard which had many packages I remember from my grandparents.

We had a great time at Anglesey Abbey, the National Trust scones were delicious as always. It is certainly a great place to take a break whilst on a long journey. 

Easter wine tasting

 Easter Saturday was our latest wine tasting with our friends at our scout group. We have recently secured grants for new windows and new flooring thanks to our local council and The King's Trust repainted our hall over the February half term so the building is starting to look amazing. We still have work to do, in particular we are needing to refurbish our toilets so we can include accessible facilities, so we are looking at grant funding for this.

Anyhow the room looked lovely all set up for our wine tasting, with a mini quiz and an Easter treat for all.

We began our evening trying something new, last tasting we tried vermouth this time La Gitana sherry was our new tasting. It isn't something I like and I didn't know if the others would but as Tesco had it on clearance at under £3.00 it seemed too good an option to miss. Unfortunately it wasn't well liked but I guess it probably tastes amazing out in Spain on a very hot day served very cold. 

Our tastings were in twos as not everyone likes white and not everyone likes red so tasting in pairs gives everyone a choice of wine when we pause mid tasting for our buffet.  Our first wines were The Traitor from Majestic, yes it was the label that caught my eye. 

The Traitor white was 100% Sauvignon Blanc and the red 40% Carmenere 40% Syrah and 20% Malbec. Both wines were from the Central Valley in Chile and were produced by Vina Casa Solis one of the big Spanish wine producers who also make the Guv'nor wine. The company invested 45 million euro in buying new sites in Chile and sourcing vines from the various Chilean regions. The name Traitor is from the legend of a young woman named Ananuca. She died from a broken heart after being betrayed by a miner and his quest for treasure. The day after her burial the valley was covered in vibrant red flowers and so were given her name and feature on the label of these lovely wines.

As soon as I looked into researching these wines I knew we had visited them in Chateauneuf du Pape. Leon Perdigal was the first wine maker of Ogier, one of France's top producers of Cote du Rhone wine. 

At previous tasting we have enjoyed this red and the white but we have not tasted the rosé until now. Both wines are made with  Syrah and Grenache grapes but the rosé also has Cinsault and the red Mourvedre. As expected these wines were very well received, we do all seem to enjoy this style of French wine. 

After our buffet we moved on to two wines from Aldi, both in the Unearthed range, a selection of wine Aldi have sourced from little known vineyards. Unearthed Beira Interior is a white wine mage from Roupeiro, Fontae Cal, Malvasia and Arinto grapes in Portugal in the Beira region at high altitude. Again it wasn't until I was researching the wine that I discovered it had featured on Saturday Kitchen recommended by Olly Smith. 

Our Unearthed red was from a region of Southern France I know very well as we have holidayed there many times including last year in the area of this appellation Minervois. Montagnes du Paradis is a blend of Carignan, Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and Cinsault and is made for Aldi by Chassaux et Fils. It was probably my favourite of the evening as it certainly brought back memories of warm sunny days last June in France.

We stayed in France for our final pair, Beau-Rivage Bordeaux Blanc and Bordeaux Rouge. Their name means beautiful shore and these wines are produced near the banks of the Gironde river on a terroir of gravel and silt. Produced by a family owned winemaker since 1870 these wines are produced exclusively for Majestic.

Bordeaux Blanc was predominately Sauvignon Blanc with the addition of Semillon giving it a rounded flavour with floral highlights. Bordeaux Rouge has an abundance of red fruits coming from its two grapes, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Our final wine did not have a pair, we wanted to enjoy it on its own. Fabula de Panzia Carinena is a Spanish wine from Lidl made from Carignan. It is made by a 60 year old Bodega with over 3000 hectares of vines in the village of Carinena. This wine maker has six different labels all of which have their own fable. The fable on our bottle was 'And for being so honest and sincere, she received the name of her land'.

We had a super evening as always, discovering new wines and flavours and perhaps understanding more about which wines we prefer and where they are from. It is always fun, if hardwork, to host these events and I'm already thinking about which wines to try next. 

Somerset in the Sun

The end of March saw us enjoying a few days in North Devon at Haven's Doniford Bay. We have holidayed in this area in the past, our first holiday together in 1985 and a few times with our children and my Dad in the 1990s.

Out of school holiday season caravan prices are a lot less, something I disagree with but having paid the higher prices for many years it's now a bonus to be retired and able to visit in low season. And so we booked a Signature Gold Front Sea View, it certainly had that ... we looked straight across the Bristol Channel to Rhoose in South Wales.

A tip when booking a Haven holiday, try to book a two bedroom caravan as the three bedroom Gold caravan although still fitted with all mod cons has quite a small main ensuite bedroom. 

Doniford Bay is a small site and a short drive from a pub but does have a fish and chip shop and bar/restaurant. With having such a great view and fully fitted kitchen we cooked ourselves most evenings, it was so nice having dinner watching the sunset.

The weather was superb, unbelievable for the end of March/early April. We started our holiday with a glass of La Gioiosa bubbly enjoying the blue skies.

The caravan site is on the Coastal Path which turns slightly inland to cross a small river called The Swill. We took a stroll and discovered Doniford Farm Park, a free entry animal park with a farm shop, restaurant and children's play barn.

It was lovely sitting outside with an ice cream with the chickens running around. I'm not sure what breed they were but they had huge feathered feet and looked very funny when they ran around.

As well as chickens the farm had pigs, goats, lamas, in fact most farm animals although I didn't see a cow. The goats were having a bit of a turf war, what a noise when they locked horns.

Hubby had many childhood holidays in North Devon so we were keen to visit some of the places he remembered. Dunster was one such place but unfortunately the castle was still closed for the winter season, it looked very impressive.

We did pop into Dunster and enjoyed a walk around the cobbled pavements. It's a very old village with a beautiful Yarn Market in the main street.

Running from Minehead to Bishops Lydeard the West Somerset Railway runs through Watchet and Doniford. We didn't take a trip as it was quite expensive and you could only buy a day ticket. I'm sure it must be busy in the holiday seasons but the carriages had only a few passengers, we would have taken a seat if shorter journey tickets had been available at a cheaper price. 

We did stand in Minehead station to see one of the steam engines take on more water and reposition for it's next journey before steaming on its way. There's something special about watching a steam train.

For me the highlight of our holiday was revisiting Lynmouth, going up Porlock Hill on the way .... it's very steep with sharp bends and cars used to struggle up it.

Lynmouth is a special place as it was our first holiday. Back in 1985 Hubby treated me to a few days at the Tors Hotel, it was lovely and we did return for a few days after our honeymoon, staying in the same room. It is no longer a hotel but apartments, an impressive building high over the valley.

We had a super time revisiting many places, it was such fun trying to replicate our 'kiss' photo on the same spot but the wrong way round, hee hee. 

To our delight the Cliff Railway was open, it's the highest totally water powered railway in the world. Each carriage has a water tank underneath, the weight of the full tank at the top brings the carriage down which pulls the lower carriage up. It must have been quite a challenge to build in the late 1800s.

The station at the top has been renovated but the view is the same as it was when we visited in 1994 with our very young children. 

Lynton (at the top of the cliff) has lots of little independent shops, we had a wander round before going back down to Lynmouth. We didn't take the funicular railway but walked the steep twisty footpath which has bridges crossing over the tracks as it decends. We certainly enjoyed a little refreshment back in Lynmouth.

Our short break was lovely, we really were lucky with the weather. Each evening the sunsets were superb, each different depending on the cloud. With our caravan being on the sea front and west facing we stayed warm whilst enjoying the views as the nights were a little chilly.

I'm not sure when we'll be visiting North Devon again, it was hard to believe our last visit was over 25 years ago. If it's that long again I doubt we'll be walking down Lynmouth hill.