Reminiscing

Day 2 of our weekend at The Shack.

We were up early watching the sun rise as the tide slowly went out, reminiscing about the days out we used to have over the school holidays staying in Goldhanger.

We decided to pop out and see a few and made a first stop to the Emporium in Maldon. Mum used to love it there, they sold everything. It was still there so we had a mooch and then found a cafe tucked into a sunny mews off the high street for some iced coffees.

Our next stop was Tiptree. I used to love going in an old cafe there with grandad who would chat to everyone as if he'd know then all his life whilst we drank endless cups of tea while mum and dad did a 'big shop' in Tescos. The cafe still had the old formica tables in rows with benches, like a school dinner hall, it hadn't changed one bit. I was pleased.

Our final stop before we headed home was lunch in the Wilkins Jam factory tearoom. At the end of the road where our railway carriage had stood years before was a farm where Wilkins would farm fruit for their jams. Grandad had an old black and white photo of a farmer there and when he died dad took the photo to the jam factory and gave it to them for their museum. Later that evening dad received a call from Mrs Wilkins who said she had first met Mr Wilkins when she went on a family holiday and stayed next to the farm, she had stayed in a railway carriage ...

We spent the evening eating sausage sandwiches and drinking ice cold shandy sitting on our balcony watching the boats retire for the evening as the sun set .