I have finally accepted that January is my lowest energy month, and instead of fighting it, have tried to embrace it by giving myself permission to stay inside in the warm and pursuing my more sedentary hobbies. As February progressed however, I was ready to slowly start coming out of hibernation mode, although the month has mostly revolved around coffee shops with some short walks tagged on.

Top of the coffee shop trips was our visit to Florence’s Artisan Bakery in Hythe for a late breakfast. We have been wanting to try this independent bakery/coffee shop for a while, and it didn’t disappoint. They only have a few tables – their main trade is takeaway, with a constant long queue of customers – and luckily we arrived just in time to nab the last available one. My chocolate orange frangipane pastry was next level and my daughter seemed equally pleased with her cinnamon bun. As a Hythe to Folkestone walk is on our regular repertoire (and that’s what we did on this occasion), we will definitely be going back to taste more of their delicious wares.

The best drink with a view was at the White Cliffs Visitor Centre in Dover. I’ve been going for walks on the cliffs since I was a child – way, way before there was ever a visitor centre and a cafe – and it’s definitely one of my happy places. Stopping for a drink is a fairly recent occurrence, coming about since I have had less energy for striding out along the clifftop, and as even the toil up from the town centre takes it out of me, but it is undeniably a nice treat. The cafe itself is very cafeteria-like inside, although it does have large panoramic windows – when they’ve not got people like us sitting at the tables right outside and blocking the view! The outdoor seating runs along the whole front of the centre and is very sheltered, and we happily sat and watched the ferries coming and going, listening to the sound of the on board announcements as they drifted up from the harbour, enjoying the feeling of some welcome sun on our faces.

Our second al fresco drink wasn’t actually from a coffee shop but from the Zetland Arms pub in Kingsdown, near Deal. We had been walking off the breakfast which we had enjoyed at the Deal Pier Kitchen, and extravagantly decided that we deserved a hot chocolate as well. The pub is very cosy inside, but they also have plenty of tables outside, and we settled for one of these, right by the edge of the beach.

We timed it well as it started to rain just as we finished our drinks and started walking back to Deal, but we were rewarded with a rainbow which appeared at the end of the pier.

The tastiest February drink award goes to the chai latte which we enjoyed at Stag Coffee in Canterbury. Having had a Swiss fondue day while watching the Winter Olympics, we were following it up with a Danish day, purely because my daughter fancied making Danish rye bread and cardamon buns, and she said a chai latte would be in keeping because they were hugely popular when she was in Copenhagen last year. Stag’s chai latte was probably the best I have ever had; brewed with a proper tea bag rather than made with powder like most coffee shops. Whilst we were there, we also sat and planned the itinerary for our summer holiday – not to Denmark (though it is on the list), but to the Basque Country (on the Spanish side), to visit the towns that my paternal great grandfather’s family came from. I have never been to Spain before, and having recently done the Ancestry DNA test and discovered that I am 10% Basque and 4% Spanish, am really excited about connecting with my forebears.