After a late night and the keyboard, we all slept well until the contractors woke us at 6 AM. After breakfast a trip to Yarmouth for the family, setting themselves up by Joyland on the beach for fun in the sand and on nearby rights back by taxi to the boat after which we left Reedham and cruised up to Stokesby, finding a good morning by the village green and playground. Some time at the specialist candle makers shop, some seafood to eat from another specialist shop and a long chat with Mr George Foley, telling me all about the village had its problems and politics. There was too much flow and watercolour for any fishing success
We slept well enough, but I had gone to bed very late after spending some hours on the keyboard. At 6 a.m., the contractors started working again and we were awake. Once ready and breakfasted, we set off for Yarmouth for the morning. A walk from the bus station to the seafront where we set ourselves up by Joyland on the beach and the girls alternated between the sand and rides as Daniel played the amusement arcades. Di did some food shopping and we were back together at midday to take a McDonald’s takeaway lunch back to The Lady by taxi.
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I ate at the helm as we turned up tide and cruised a fair distance to Stokesby. We managed to get a good mooring alongside the village green and children’s play equipment. I left the girls to play under Daniel’s eye as Diana and I had a walk around the village. It seems that there is to be a St Swithin’s Festival over three days starting the next day. There was a funeral taking place at the church – an old village lady resident had passed away – and there was quite a turn-out. We went to the candle workshops and bought some decorative and floating candles which will be quite impressive in our conservatory. I then bought a wonderful selection of very fresh seafood from a specialist shop and I had a nice salad lunch back at the boat as a result. I tried fishing but to no avail – too much flow and colour to see what I was doing and that comment was probably accurate for the fish as well! Later this evening, I checked my answering machine at home and reset the tape and then had a very long chat with the character nearby. His name was George Foley who had carved his name into a newly built flint, brick and stone wall by the village green. He had also made the village sign and others in the area and carved a date by the church, being something of a stonemason. It was another job to redo the war memorial but, unfortunately, he had got one name wrong and had been criticised for it by villages who felt that is 25 years were not enough to be local. In fact, his son now owns the bungalow and he just comes over at weekends to help him keep up with the garden and grounds. I find out that the green is registered as common land, but they forgot the small piece of river land and somebody else registered that. A farmer keeps the grass cut for £350 a year but does a poor job. A commoner who kept a pony on it was driven off, which was unfair. The farmer had spent time getting tenants out of the tied cottages and now they are being revamped for holiday hire. Only seven or so dwellings have been built in the last 10 to 15 years and youngsters have no place to buy. A walk afterwards showed some interesting riverside property and one had a dozen derelict boats, cars and caravans on it which somebody had collected.