The Secret Seven

This weekend was straight out of an Enid Blyton novel.

Cesca's mum lives in a lovely little cottage in Suffolk by the coast, and we decided to go there for the weekend.  David, Cesca, Onyi, Martha and I crammed into my car and we drove up to Blytheburgh on Friday night.

On arrival Cesca's mum had laid out candles leading from the driveway to the kitchen where we found a feast of home made goodies, washed down with some delicious white wine.  We said hello, feasted and disappeared off into our beds as we were pretty tired from the drive up.


Saturday morning after a lay in, we woke up to the most magical garden.  Decorated with home made statues, glass, mirrors and random bits of art, it's a little bit magical. (I know I used magical twice but it really was pretty cool!)  The house is equally beautiful, filled with trinkets and knickknacks and home made quilts.  


Beautiful home made quilts!

Johan and David spectating the croquet



so beautiful - mosaic shower


We had a hearty breakfast and headed off to the beach at Dunwich, where Martha convinced me to go for a swim. In the sea. In September!   It was very cold, but very exhilarating and once the initial 'f*** this is bl**dy cold, please can we get out right now' had worn off, it was fun!!





attempting some synchronised swimming




After our brisk swim we headed back and played croquet in the garden - I am pretty pants, but the Ribenfors clan are pretty good and competition was fierce.

Cesca takes the competition a bit far


 James and Johan arrived, so after a cup of tea we headed out on a walk to Southwold, doing some caches along the way.  We stopped for a group photo on a fence, with Johan kindly volunteering to take the photo.  As he prepared the camera, a kind couple walked past and offered to take the photo with him in it.  He jumped up onto the fence, and just as the camera went 'click', we heard a thud and the fence dropped suddenly.  The resulting photo (and Cesca's face) is fantastic.  I advise you to click on it and zoom in if you can:

I am such a fashonista - trainers, maxi dress, leggings and a raincoat....yikes


unable to find the cache










We ended up in a pub (as all good walks should end) and James announced we should have a rock paper scissors competition to decide who stayed sober to drive.  He stated he was amazing at rock paper scissors and wanted to enter the world championships.  We all challenged him to a match and he proceeded to lose every single time, to 7 different people.  We advised him to maybe enter next year.




Cesca's step dad had kindly volunteered to come pick us all up.  However a communication mishap meant Cesca's mum to turn up at our pub (Simon had gone to another pub in a different village) which led to 8 of us squeezing into a Suzuki Wagon.  Impressive (and illegal) stuff!

The evening festivities included delicious food, alcohol, debates and  a very cringeworthy (well at least for Cesca!) game of Cards Against Humanity with Cesca's parents.




On Sunday morning James, Martha and I returned to the beach as the weather was a bit brighter.  I designated myself as photographer (couldn't face the waves and bitter cold again) and watched James and Martha frolick in the sea until they got too cold to continue.  We headed back to a hearty fry up, had a game of chess and some more croquet, before packing up and heading back to London.





James limbering up!



A lovely little weekend getaway with some lovely people!

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