Start of term, our writing task. . The highlight for me had been going with my Mum to a rather posh Garden Party. I was 6, and had to present some flowers to the important guest of honour. All summer, I'd practised presenting [not dropping] said flowers, smiling and curtseying to The Lady.
I wrote about the garden, and the cakes, and then wrote "I gave a
bokay to a Lady" My teacher didn't know what a
bokay was. She interrogated me at length about this word. I tried to explain to her, I even showed her how to curtsey. She asked the class, and none of them knew about bokays. "Angela, I think this is an imaginary word you have made up." Everyone laughed at me. I cried tears of frustration. I thought everybody knew about bokays, after all, the Queen has them. When Mum collected me from school, she explained about the
bouquet. But I was a miserable wreck, and felt the Most Important Day in my holidays had been belittled. But that was 1961, now I am happier talking about holidays!
On Monday morning we went to Felbrigg Hall [NT] and did their splendid Easter Trail. Bob borrowed a mobility scooter and he was able to accompany the Jess and Ro on the whole trail. The scooters are a free service and very well organised. The girls played games on the grass, built dens, found clues, and made music in the woods. The trail cost £3.50 each, but they received a quality chocolate egg at the end.
Monday afternoon we made Easter cards, and then made and decorated pizzas. The girls had a sleepover.
Tuesday we did more crafts - painting rabbits, and making baskets for egg collection. Jess had asked Grandad to make a sign for her door on a piece of bark she'd found. It was rather soggy, and when Grandad explained, she was happy to have a sign on a better piece of wood. He made Rosie one too.
Then on Thursday I went with the family to
BeWILDerwood. Bob and I took Rosie to this theme park
back in 2023, for an evening event, I had never been in the daytime before. It was great fun with treetop walkways, zipwires, mazes, slides, and other energetic activities. Plus gentler stuff - facepainting, crafts, story time, puppets, a boat ride and facepainting. And another Easter Trail to follow. We were there from 11am till 4pm, and really enjoyed ourselves.
Overall verdict: all good, 5*venues.
The NT day was good - three of us have membership, and Jess is under 5, so we only had to pay for the Easter Egg Trail. The snacks from the food caravan were very generously sized - the girls shared their chocolate brownie, and I took half my pasty home for later. Facilities for the less mobile were excellent, and all the staff were so friendly and helpful.
BeWILDerwood was a little more expensive [but we spent 5 hours there] Unlike Felbrigg, where we saw lots of people clearly doing Granny-Duties, at the theme park, there were far more parents-with-children. I suspect that is because there is a lot of walking, and terrain is a bit bumpy for mobility scooters. [Bob was busy anyway, so didn't come with us]
That said, it is very well laid out, with lots of places to sit down if your little legs [young or old] get tired, and plenty of clean, well maintained loos dotted about the site [no need for surreptitious Tree Wees!] The food cabins do not charge excessive prices [we took a picnic, but bought hot drinks when it turned chilly] There were picnic benches and well labelled litter bins.
Again the young staff were engaged and relentlessly cheerful. They were word perfect in recounting the stories of the Twiggles and the Boggles, and Cedric the Easter Bunny.
As we left, the girls each got bags of sweets for completing their worksheets. We were all very tired but happy.
Those are some of the things I did in the Easter Holidays, and we were grateful for the opportunity to spend time with the family. I hope you had a good Easter too...
