what to do on a rainy day...

Yesterday dawned cold, grey and, to be honest, a bit miserable again. I feel like the windows have looked like this for days now...

...and I have to really fight off the grey feeling that threatens to make me want to just hibernate away and do nothing much. But yesterday we had plans! Afternoon tea in the pretty Suffolk village of Lavenham! Its a bit of a drive but I had good company in the car and we met another friend there, first for a look at the beautiful church...

It has stunning stained glass windows and must look quite spectacular on a sunny day. Lavenham must have been a very wealthy town in its day - it apparently prospered from the wool trade and by the C15th & C16th was one of the richest in Britain. This is reflected in the church which was completed in 1525 and is huge for a village church, with the names of, what I presume were the merchant families of the village, on the windows on either side. There are some really beautiful and intricate carvings in the woodwork - I am always amazed at the sheer length of time these things have survived for so intact.

I've also got to confess to being just a bit excited that the little house I'm buying in Norwich dates from around the same time and I kept trying to imagine what East Anglia must have been like in the C15th century - I love the sense of history and previous life; who walked through those rooms, what were they wearing, what were their lives like... Always have had an overactive imagination! My house doesn't have the sense of grandeur of the Lavenham timber framed houses - it is a tiny city cottage - but it is a mixture of brick and flint, and half timbered and has a real feel of having housed 'other lives'.

Anyway, after the church we went on to the very grand and rather beautiful Swan Hotel for afternoon tea...

We ate way too much (when else do you ever eat 2 scones and 3 cakes in one sitting?!!), drank tea out of pretty china and generally had a lovely time. The company of friends made it of course, but such a treat to do these things now and again!

Right... can't put it off any longer, off to get the decorations down now...

Sx

PS Keep meaning to say, although I usually try to reply directly to commenters, sometimes people are 'no reply' bloggers and sometimes I just forget! So, for simplicity for me, I'm probably for the most part, going to just reply directly on here for now. I do read all the comments and really appreciate you taking the time to say something! :-) x