We’d decided in the middle of the week that the weather would be slightly improved on Saturday, so that would be our nominated day out. Mr had filled his car up with petrol, booked our tickets for visiting Audley End and all was good.

When I drove to work on Thursday an engine warning light came on in my car. Now, given that my car had only just had its service and MOT the week before I thought that a bit odd. Mr took a look at it on Friday and managed to do something that got rid of the light and suggested that I drove to Audley End to give it a good run as I only usually drive to work and back.

So, we set off with pack up lunch ready, camera, tickets, walking boots and rain coats. We drove a little further on than Audley End and pulled up alongside a little church down a side road and had our lunch in the car as the weather wasn’t as pleasant as we’d hoped. Actually it was quite fun sitting in the car trying to remember the last time we came here. We both remember coming with SD#2 and her French exchange student, bizarrely we can both remember her name was Alice. But we couldn’t remember having been back since. That must have been about 20 years ago.

Lunch scoffed, I drove back round the perimeter wall and down the track to the car park. Not many people about but that’s probably because you had to book in advance and they were limiting numbers.

We wandered around the formal gardens which still had some lovely bright blooms. Then round to the front of the house to go in. We didn’t have to wait long. They were limiting the number of people in each room to 6 so we had to wait for the previous groups to move on. They only had a few of the rooms open and you’re not allowed to take photos. It didn’t take very long to wander round the house before we were back outside again.

We had a look around some of the out buildings, found a little refreshment outlet, the main cafe wasn’t open, got a hot chocolate and an oversized custard cream, then headed back to the car. Sadly, it was too cold and windy to go for much of a walk and rain had threatened again. We probably spent about 2 hours there and it took the best part of an hour to get there, and the same back home again.

On the way home we decided to take a detour around a new housing estate being built. Some of the houses look very odd with very sharp pointy roofs and bits on the side. I expect they probably cost an absolute fortune.

We were home again by 4pm. Time for a cuppa. Although not as nice a day as we’d hoped, it was still good to get out in the fresh air and do something other than sit in front of the computer. Mr checked the photo catalogue on the computer and apparently we did go there about 20 years ago with SD#2 and Alice, the French exchange student then back in 2010 with R. It seems we go every 10 years or so. So in 2030 guess where we’ll probably end up?

It was good to blow some cobwebs away. 🌬