Waiting for the Duck Race

May 7th is a big day in the north Braintree area - the Bocking Village Fayre, culminating in the duck race down the river to Kings Bridge. We had a few friends round and despite the less than ideal weather forecast had arranged a barbecue for when the fayre had ended.
Luckily the weather wasn't too bad in the afternoon so we all wandered up the road to see what was happening and get wet in another downpour.

Thomas and Lily seemed generally positive having played at the new school playground.



Martha is still getting to grips with the fact that ice cream melts, even if it's barely above freezing.



We took our places early next to the bridge for the duck race, perhaps a bit too early given that the previous couple of weeks unbroken sunshine meant that the Blackwater was hardly a raging torrent. It took quite a while for the ducks to travel the couple of hundred metres down from the other bridge and for the third year in a row one of our ducks failed to win.

Still, the weather was good enough to enjoy the barbecue when we got back, too late for the fayre organisers unfortunately and we'd done enough to ensure that some of our guests were worn out.

Flying visit

We had a visit from Kate over the weekend of 5th /6th May, a weekend break from her RAF basic training. Thomas and Martha were naturally delighted to see her and the general excitement level went up a further notch with the simultaneous arrival of Rebecca and Amelia (no Grace sadly, she wasn't feeling very well). Everyone went to Boydells Farm in the afternoon (does anyone detect a pattern emerging?) and spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden. Here's a picture of Kate and three of her nieces and nephews on the hammock in the garden.



On Sunday Kate ironed her RAF greens, sadly the camera was charging at that point so there's no photographic proof, you'll just have to take our word for it.