Village fayre preservation society

Perhaps dubbing ourselves the village fayre preservation society is a bit strong but we did contribute a bottle to the school tombola and Rachel did the 5 mile 'Fun Run' in under 50 minutes so we chipped in.

Bad weather had blighted the previous two Bocking Village Fayres but this year was different, the sun shone continuously. The Fun Run started at noon so we went a bit earlier than usual and while Rachel made her way round the fields of the Fennes Estate, Thomas and Martha with Nanny, Grandad and Daddy in tow visited Thomas' school, and the other attractions. Here's Martha on the roundabout



Both Thomas and Martha took advantage of the face painting on offer, Martha opting for fairly simple butterfly while Thomas made sure Nanny got her money's worth by opting for a time consuming Spiderman design. Here he is being worked on, the phenomenally loud samba band are just out of shot



The finished article



Martha took about half the time, but she was happy with the results



What better way to round things off than with a pint?

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.