Mersea Island, Essex - East Mersea

a kind offer from Jeff and Clare finds us on Mersea via Chelmsford - Wivenhoe dead end brings out the sat-nav - low road over the mud to Mersea - winter fields - Cudmore Grove County Park - olive green dog walkers - mud in all its forms, colours and consistency - lapwings, shelduck, wigeon - corrosive wind -  shingle, eroding orange cliff, huge caravan parks - car as sanctuary

Mersea Island, Essex - West Mersea

bumpy lane to nowhere - esplanade of beach huts - The Company Shed - Art Cafe for a warming latte as the sleet begins - closed museum - a stained glass spotted flounder in the church of St Peter & St Paul - a frontier land of mud - beached house boats at the end of long boardwalks - 125 sugar almond beach huts - a warm car home, caught in the traffic

Mersea Island, Essex - The Company Shed

The Company Shed, Mersea

behind the curtains, the oysters await their fate

The Company Shed counter

down to earth decor at The Company Shed

help yourself to glasses

oysters, scallops, fishcakes at The Company Shed

oilcloth covered tables - fishermen & dahlings - trays of oysters behind an old shower curtain - "help yourself to a glass from the shelves" - surely too cold for oysters, or is that just an excuse? - a rather good link...