A Virtually Perfect Day

After a great night's sleep we all awoke virtually famished - if not actually! We grabbed our virtual Swan Breakfast menu and decided what to eat. The kiddoes decided on pancakes and toast - not just plain old white sandwich toast however but home baked toasted apricot and walnut granary bread - heaven! Personally I went for 'The Full Suffolk', local free-range pork sausage, smoked dry cured Suffolk bacon, Lane Farm black pudding, field mushrooms, tomatoes and free range Manor farm eggs. The menu is so delicious that I've already made a mental note of what to eat tomorrow for breakfast!

We have fun-packed day ahead of us! First stop is Colchester Castle. Colchester was the first capital of Roman Britain (not Londinium/modern London). There was a huge Temple of the Emperor Claudius here which was attacked and destroyed during the revolt of the Iceni Queen Boudicca. A terrific virtual tour of the castle and Roman remains follows for your delight and edification! I love the fact that there is a lot of hands-on activities here for children 1, 2 and 3 who could choose from trying on togas, handling real Roman artefacts, talking to historical character re-enactors and taking part in pottery or weaving workshops. So cool!

http://www.colchestermuseums.org.uk/castle/castle_vr.html

After a quick sandwich near the castle we headed off to Colchester Zoo to see the new Gelado Baboon baby and the endangered species Dragons of Komodo. Telu, the  Komodo Dragon on display was small but to be fair to him was only 3 years old. When fully grown he could be as long as 3 meters!!!

Today has been a huge success. Lots of kid-centered things to do, so to redress the balance we went shopping for Mummy at J & J Baker Antiques. Always wanted a Welsh dresser....wonder how I'm going to get it back?

Munnings Tea Rooms

To round off a perfect day we went to Munnings Tea Rooms in Lavenham for English afternoon tea. Now, this is not exactly a novelty for my kiddoes because I often bake and make tea but the idea of going 'out' to tea was the novelty factor. Wow - just as well we had done so much walking today! We had a huge pot of tea, scones with clotted cream, tea loaf and Yorkshire Curd Tart! SOOO delicious. The kiddoes drank Elderflower Cordial because they have never tried that before. What a treat! the atmosphere in Munnings reminded me of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books and every other novel tea room I ever read about.

To celebrate the feel good factor of English tea, here's my Mum's recipe for scones - they're deceptively simple but you must eat them on the same day that they are made - they don't keep well!

English Scones
8 oz Self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 oz butter or margarine
2 oz dried fruit (optional)
1tblsp sugar (optional)
1 egg, beaten
3 fl oz milk

1) Sieve the flour and salt in to a bowl and rub in the fat. Add the sugar if using and the fruit and stir well.
2) Add the beaten egg and milk and mix to a soft dough
3) Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 3/4 " thickness. Either cut out with pastry cutters or leave in a large round and indent sections with a knife.
4) In either case place the scones onto a greased baking sheet and bake towards the top of the oven for 10-15 minutes at 450 degrees. As oven temperatures vary I would check after 8 minutes!