Discover the Best Coffee Places in Norfolk & Suffolk, UK: A Caffeine Lover's Guide

Whether you're a local or a visitor, finding the perfect coffee spot can elevate your day. Norfolk and Suffolk, known for their scenic beauty and charming towns, offer a plethora of delightful cafes where you can indulge in a cup of expertly brewed coffee. From coastal hideaways to urban gems, there is so much to discover here and why I absolutely adore living on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. Here's our guide to the best places to enjoy coffee in Norfolk and Suffolk.

PYO Flowers at Southwold Flower Company

The summer holidays are in full swing and planning days out for the kiddies, whilst being mindful of expenses, is a full-on mission when you have six weeks to fill. This summer I wanted to make sure it was one filled with lots of activities that created wonderful memories - it seems so important given all we have been through in the last couple of years with being so restricted. So in between our planned camping trips I wanted to ensure I had some days out and activities planned that would not cost the earth and I thought it would be a good idea to share these with you. The first being PYO flower picking at Southwold Flower Company.

 

Roaar Dinosaur Adventure | Summer 2019 [AD - Gifted Tickets]

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to visit one of our favourite local attractions, Roaar Dinosaur Adventure Park and we were kindly gifted press passes for the day. It was Dippy Dinosaur’s birthday week (29th July- 6th August) and there were lots of fun extra activities on to help him celebrate and I thought I would share with you what we got up to.

The Glorious Glowing Lantern Parade at BeWILDerwood | Review

When an invitation to visit BeWILDerwood appeared in my inbox, a little squeal of excitement immediately leaped out of me. This place is an outdoor haven for children and parents alike, an imaginative adventure park with magical treehouses and characters that bring a curious difference to the Norfolk Broads. This is the setting for the book, "A Boggle at BeWILDerwood" by local author Tom Blofield. Having been before when Darcie was just two, I knew she would love it even more second time around and that little bit older. The main reason for our visit was the review the Glorious Glowing Lantern parade, and true to form, it didn't disappoint.

Holkham Beach

Yesterday, as you would of seen, was our first Wedding Anniversary and Jamie surprised me with a little day trip to Holkham. It's a place I have never been before, but one that has been on my 'places to visit' list for a while now. Holkham, located in North Norfolk, is one of the most beautiful little spots in the county - I can't believe we haven't been before.  We were Darcie free for the day, but I would love to return with her as it's the perfect place for families. 

Dinosaur Adventure Park - Norfolk | A Special Day Out

On Saturday we treated Darcie to a special day out to the Dinosaur Adventure Park in Norfolk. It was special because on Tuesday Darcie turns three (!!) and as we're both working we thought a trip this weekend would be the perfect compromise. Darcie has been desperate to go here ever since she saw a leaflet for the place and so when we asked her what she wanted to do - this was her immediate response!

The Dinosaur Adventure Park is a local attraction to me and its been going years, I think my brother even went when he was her age and that was 20+ years ago! But it's a place that we had never thought to go and I was a little worried that it might be a little scary for an (almost) three year old. Luckily there was nothing to worry about as there was sooo much to do and wasn't scary at all! It has been voted one of the best attractions for family days out in Norfolk and I would have to agree.

There is so much to do for children (big or small), from unearthing dinosaur fossils, discovering the different dinosaur species on their trail, to exploring the secret gardens and animals. We were surprise just how big the park was, everything was nicely spread out too so, even though it was busy as it was half term, you never felt overcrowded or like you missed out on anything because of hordes of people.

Our favourite parts were the Dinosaur trail, I loved to see Darcie explore and actually show her dino knowledge. She knew T-rex, Stegosaurs, Triceratops and diplodocus! Impressive! 

The day was pretty perfect and was a great way in which to start her birthday celebrations. Here are a few snaps of the day...

Excited to enter the Dinosaur Park

A spot of fossil finding

Buggy racing with Daddy

Buggy Racing with Mummy!

Let's explore some more.

Woooah!

She does love her dinosaurs!

Me getting a spook from the scary roars!

Collecting our stamps for a medal!

Me being a dork

A "real" dinosaur!

Indoor play time

She got her medal!!

Do you have a favourite day out destination??

Mummy B xoxox

Gruffalo in the Woods!

Tomorrow I go back to work, after having two glorious weeks off. The 'January Blues' may well sink in but I'm staying up beat and positive because we have lots of lovely things to look forward too. As much as I love the holidays, I am very much looking forward to getting ourselves back into a routine. Whilst on holiday I get way too comfy and put all my usual jobs get put to one side, its safe to say I get into the full "holiday" mode and become a lazy bum!

Enjoying our home, Norfolk

When reading Kerri's blog Ginger Lilly Tea and her recent trip to Norfolk with her beautiful girls, it reminded me how much I love living in Norfolk. Having not even been home a week from honeymoon, it was a lovely to read someone's enjoyment of place in which I live and certainly didn't make me feel sad to be back home. 

Yesterday we spent some quality time with the family, it was Jamie's last day off after nearly three weeks. We decided to go for a family walk, and took our dog Lady to Santon Downham. Santon Downham is perfect for the whole family, it has a lovely walk along the river, you can walk through the woods or even have a splash or swim in the river if you're feeling adventurous! 

Lady was feeling especially adventurous, she never normally likes water but was completely lapping it up today! 

After Lady had finished playing in the river we headed for a walk through the woods. We managed to find blackberries and some pinecones too, though Darcie was way more interested in the blackberries!

Picking blackberries also meant that we ticked another item off the National Trust's "50 Things" (read more about this initiative HERE). 

It was so nice to feel like we were really appreciating our home, in fact I feel really lucky sometimes that we have all these beautiful places virtually on our door step!

Where is your favourite place in your local area?

Mummy B xoxox

Update in Photos

With much of the wedding preparations taking up a lot of time, it has left me a little behind on here! So I thought I would share with you a couple of images from the past two weeks...

As many of you may already know, Jamie is a keen biker. a couple of weeks ago we spent the evening at a local track, Snetterton whilst Jamie did a few laps. It was a lovely evening as we decided to take a picnic and as it was pretty deserted, Darcie could happily play and let off steam.

Last weekend was a trip to Bressingham Steam Museum where we encountered Peppa Pig!! Darcie was mesmerised, as was I by the looks of it. It made me even more excited to share with Darcie the magic of Disneyland one day...

Last week Darcie also spent the day with one of her bestest friends, Lilly, whilst I was at work (thank you Hayley)... look how cute they were on the bus...!

I thought she was rather brave taking two two year olds out for the afternoon!

On Sunday we spent the afternoon baking, I had been feeling poorly days previous to this so we needed a "pick me up" in a cake form! Darcie pretty much made the mix herself, I just helped with the weighing and the final mix... what a little star!

This was followed by a stroll on Southwold beach and chip in the evening. Which was perfect after a crazy week!

This evening we went on our favourite walk through Wortham Ling, we even laid on the floor for 5 mins just watching the clouds... blissful. Time out like this (and in a way from blogging too) makes you really appreciate things so much more. I say that all the time, but I need to find the time to take a step back from the world a little more often.

What have you been up to? What have I missed?!

Mummy B xoxox

Mine & Darcie's Little Get Away + Some Exciting News

This weekend was Jamie's Stag Do, and as they were having it fairly local they decided to all stay at our house (I know, I'm brave right?!). So as me and Darcie didn't fancy being in a house full of drunk men, we decided to stay at my parents house and house sit for them.

Darcie was a little weary when we arrived, and very confused when my Dad and Sarah (step mum) left. She kept saying "Grandad gone?" and "Daddy at work?", bless her! She soon settled down... at 10pm! On Saturday we spent the day with friends, it was pretty perfect and got to see all my bridesmaids. I love chilled out days like this. 

Today, Sunday, we spent in the garden and going on a little walk. We fed the ducks, spoke to the horses and blew dandelions so fairies could be born! 

Whilst all this was taking place, I decided to do a little vlogging! Only whilst we were at home and on our walk. I'm taking my time, getting used to filming, talking on camera and editing (which takes an AGE!!!) and as we speak it is currently uploading!! Its a BIG step for me, as I have said so many times, I adore watching family vlogs (a guilty pleasure of mine!) and I have actually enjoyed putting it together! The filming part was easy, I just used my phone (I will progress onto a better camera!) and the editing part, though it took me a while to get used to iMovies, was lots of fun... so satisfying to see the finished piece! It is most definitely not perfect, but its a start! Keep your eyes peeled it should be up shortly!

Mummy B xoxox 

Picnic at Knettleshall Heath and thoughts on YouTube...

As this blog was a place to keep our memories safe, here is another post about a lovely, yet simple day out we had today.

This morning when we woke we had no plans at all. But my mum decided to pop over and we decided to make a little picnic and head over to a local beauty spot Knettleshall Heath. With our picnic in tow, wellies and jumpers we took the short car journey to our destination. Whilst in the car I shared with mum a couple of ideas we have had for our ceremony music for the wedding... who knew that could be such a hard task!!

As if was lunch time, we decided to have our little picnic first.

I made some pasta and we had very traditional picnic stuff like Scotch Eggs! We were so very organised we even brought green tea with us!! (Normally me and my mum spend a day out saying "wouldn't it have been nice if we were a little bit more organised if.." but today we were seemingly on fire!).

After our little lunch we headed for a walk along the river. Going for walks are literally one of my favourite things to do. Its such a good activity to do with tots, they can learn so much from different surroundings and above all the fresh air and exercise does everybody the world of good. 

We don't walk for the distance, we just like to take our time and let Darcie explore. Its nice to see things through little ones eyes.

Darcie is obsessed with flowers at the moment. She goes around and collects them to make her own bouquet, today her choice of flowers were seemingly Dandelions. Her new wellies have been getting lots of use over the Easter holidays! 

This afternoon whilst waiting for Jamie to get home from work, I have been thinking lots about setting up my own YouTube channel. I love watching family vlogs such as Sacconejoly and think its such an awesome way of capturing moments in ways that perhaps blogging can't. Today there were so many funny moments that would of been a perfect vlog and I keep thinking of our Honeymoon, what an amazing way it would be to keep our memories alive! The big question is, do I have the confidence? 

I'm not sure, what do you guys think of the vlogging community?

Mummy B xoxox