Maldon, Essex

Spent the day with my brother, sis-in-law, niece and nephews - we went to Maldon (Essex) for a wonderful summer Sunday afternoon. Maldon is an important town for me being both where I went to school a zillion years ago and years later was a teacher before moving to Turkey. An historic town of Anglo Saxon origin, Maldon is well known for its sea salt - exported world wide (including Istanbul!!). Another claim to fame is Maldon's annual mud race and no, I have never participated ! But mostly the town is known as 'home' for the flat bottomed Thames Sailing Barges (also called Spritsail barges) of C19th and early C20th that carried cargo on the shallow waters of the Thames estuary. I attended High School here and remember as a sixth form student walking down to the quay in art class to paint and draw these graceful, beautiful vessels.

Our day trip started with time spent in the "Splash Park" where kids and brother had an ace time running in and out of all the water fountains and showers - shrieking and laughing - and that was just my brother :) This went on for some time and was fun to watch. Then we sat on the grass for our picnic of cucumber sandwiches, strawberries and bubbly water, after which we strolled (when I took today's photo) until reaching one of the quay side pubs where the kids had ice cream and everyone had chips (with beer or wine to wash it down for those over 18). Finally back to the car via the kiddies "Pirate Ship" play centre.

As we drove home through the lovely green Essex villages of (Danbury, Sandon and Great Baddow my bro took me past various personal historic sites, including the house where we grew up. We literally drove down Memory Lane!

To close the day, we all had dinner together, with Dad too of course - who hadn't wanted to join us for our excursion - and then watched even more episodes of Midsomer Murders in this weekend orgy of mayhem and murder in the fictitious village of Midsomer with the delectable Chief Inspector Barnaby and delightful side kick, Sergeant Jones.

I had a lot of trouble choosing a photo for today, so many fun shots of the kids in the Splash Park and close ups of the barges and their intricate rigging and sails, but in the end this nostalgic view of the ebb tide, mud flats and moored barges in the distance of this medieval town of my youth, wins the day. And what a day.