Minehead week – Selworthy and Periwinkle Cottage

One day each family decided to head in separate ways, so we thought we’d check out Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s cottage. So we drove the 30 minutes there, only to discover that it was closed. Oh no! What to do now? It was getting close to lunchtime, and we had two hungry and fidgety kids on our hands. We couldn’t see any promising cafes in the tiny village we’d driven to, so we decided we’d better schlep back to Minehead for lunch. The day was threatening to be a dud.

Then Rob spotted a little handwritten sign along the road that said “Ancient Tea Garden” with an arrow pointing to the right. We decided to check it out. We bumped along a narrow little road for a while, until there were no more houses and we were in the countryside, and then we drove a while longer, and we wondered if we’d somehow missed it. We kept going until we passed a farm full of cattle, and we were just about to give up when we saw this:

Here in the middle of nowhere was an outdoor café beside the ruins of an old abbey. Chickens were strutting around and clucking, birds were chirping in the ancient rafters, and horses were grazing in the field nearby. It was just beautiful. The sandwiches were really good, too. The day was saved!

 

Renewed and refreshed, we decided to head on to Selworthy, which we’d heard was beautiful.

We explored the church and then headed down a little path that opened up to a gorgeous view of a cluster of yellow thatched cottages.

It was like we’d wandered into a fairy tale.

Of course, we had to stay for tea.

Mm hmmm. Everyone knows that calories don’t count when you’re on vacation.

There are miles of trails in the hilly forest around the tea room, so we explored for a while.

Then the kids were eager to get back to the beach and meet up with their cousins for some more crabbing. Another fantastic day!