Category Archives: United Kingdom

Morrison goes to Southwold to sample the Adnams

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Our first outing in Morrison this year, the delayed start was caused by our trip to New Zealand. The weather looked good for a few days, so we booked a space in the campsite at Southwold in Suffolk for three days from the Tuesday. We have packing the van and getting away down to a fine art. No preparation until the day of departure and we are normally away by 10. Today was no exception.

We arrived and parked in the campsite, the same pitch 330 as last year. We soon headed out on foot along the harbour, stopping at the Harbour Inn for some liquid refreshments.

Watched a chap cutting the verges using a remotely operated large machine. Looked very exciting, even better than a ride-on.

Refreshed we headed across the fields, then the golf course to Southwold town where we looked for Fat Face to buy me a new top. It had gone, the shop had been demolished, though there was a sign pointing us to the temporary location. Phew. Fat Face purchased, it was time for more liquid refreshments at the Sole Bay Inn, and then back to the campsite along the sand dunes.

Wednesday was another bright and Sunny day, so we though about catching the foot ferry to Walberswick. We had not thought this one through, but we did land on our feet. The notice at the ferry said it was operative only at weekends, though a chalked notice showed that the previous day (Tuesday) it had run. We lurked and sure enough a man arrived on the far bank and rowed across for us, updating the notice board to say it was open today.

At Walberswick we happened to bump into some Kingswood villagers in the car park, Ian and Judith who were having a week in the area birdwatching.  Exchange of birding notes. Went down to the beach which both of us remember, from 35 years ago, as being sandy. It isn’t now, with patches of sand & shingle. Lunch at the Bell Inn, very nice, and then we continued our walk along bridleways, (where Rosemary found an “exciting” plant) and across the River Blyth, returning back to the campsite.

Thursday was Adnams Brewery Tour Day. I was booked in, on my own, for a tour and beer tasting. A small group of around 12 people were shown around. The highlight at the end was a beer tasting where we sampled 6-8 beers. Well worth the trip. Adnams brewery is now pretty high tech, with the most energy-efficient brewery in the UK, all German technology. We then stocked up on some beers at the shop, two suitable mugs to use with our new (to us) chrome-plated New Zealand teapot, and headed for lunch at the Sail Loft.

Friday was our last day, packed up, again this is so easy in Morrison, and so we were soon away after breakfast. We headed to the RSPB at Minsmere, where we walked around the main hides overlooking the scrapes, and were impressed by the badger fencing.  The Sandmartins put on a great display as they gathered insects and returned to the cliff to feed their young.  On the way back from the scrapes we encountered a Tawny owl perched in a tree, and an adder wandering across the woodland floor.  

Oxford with the Sadgits

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Rosemary and I met up with Simon, Ravi and Maggie in Oxford one Sunday morning. We were not able to park in the usual Pear Tree park and ride, it had been taken over by gypsies who have now moved on to the Bicester park and ride.  First we had English breakfast with beer at the Jam Factory. Then we worked off the excess calories with a walk to see where Simon used to live with his parents. After visiting the house  we walked through the university park and along the river Cherwell, stopping for refreshments at the Angel and Greyhound pub.

Abbey Park and Abbey Pumping Station

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After our visit to Stoneywell, we visited Abbey Pumping Station.  This  pump was built to pump Leicester’s sewage away for treatment. The pump has been preserved and has steaming days when it is worth visiting.  

As well as the pump there is a museum featuring items from Leicester’s industrial past. There is also a display on how sewers work, which amused children for hours as they flushed a model turd down the loo and through the sewers.

The next day we went back to Abbey park where there is a ruin of an Abbey. Coffee in the pavilion teas shop.

 

Visit to Stoneywell National Trust

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Stoneywell National TrustWe had an excellent trip to Stoneywell National Trust House. The weather could have been a little better. 

Lovely little National Trust house, with  fabulous gardens. First off, you must book to come here, you can not just turn up. This is because of planning regulations and limited access. The car park is a little way off from the house, a mini bus will pick you up and ferry you to the house.  They were waiting for us in the car park. The same on return.

You see the house with a guide in small groups. There were four in our group. The house was built of stone in 1899 and was originally thatch. After a fire the home was re-roofed in slate. The house is built into the rock of the nearby hill. The house is also a built as a zigzag,  is not straight, it has no square walls, no right angles to be seen anywhere. Much of the furniture is original.

Up in the stables there is a small cafe where you can sit inside or outside. Alas we visited on the most miserable and cold day of the year, and we decided not to sit outside, and we also gave most of the garden a miss. We were told it was planted so there were some flowering plants at all times of the year. We did see snowdrops.

We definitely must go back on a warmer dryer summer day and see it when we can relax in the garden.

The staff were amazingly pleasant and informative about the history of the house. While we waited for the bus to take us back we had a great conversation with them.

Mottisfont Dressed for Christmas

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Instead of visiting Waddesdon for a Christmas spectacle, we decided to visit Mottisfont. There was a special Kaffe Fassett display on, so Rosemary was interested in going. We would also get to see the house dressed for Christmas.

We arrived and headed straight to the house to see the exhibition and house dressing. Not quite to the scale of Waddesdon Manor, but still very good to look at. The Kaffe Fassett show covered four rooms and had a lovely embroidered chair, pullovers and lots of patchwork quilts. Incredible work, though you could see the work was done at speed and not always finished neatly.

We stopped for lunch in the stables, and then we went on a guided wetlands nature walk. It takes you through wetland woods areas where you are not allowed on your own . We learned that peat was dug here, and that lakes and navigation were also built to get the stone close to the construction site of the original Mottisfont abbey.

There was not much to be seen in the gloom of a cloudy dismal winter day, excepting that two kingfishers were spotted flying along the dykes.

We also learnt that the river fishing rights were owned by the National Trust, and that this is one of the most expensive trout fishing river in the UK, the River Test. The art of the dry fly tying was realised here. We saw some trout who became very active when some food was fed to them.

Back to the stables for tea, and then on home.  

Bicester Village

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Bicester Village, the outlet retail park, has expanded. Tesco was demolished, and rebuilt on the other side of the road. The land where Tesco was became an extension to Bicester Village. This extension opened in October, We visited the village for the first time in ages. We went in the evening to see the Christmas lights, and not to buy. Was easy to park, being a Tuesday. It was bitterly cold. There were some new shops, and some disappearances. We were intrigued by the only electrical shop which sold wifi/bluetooth speakers for more than a grand: the Devialet Phantom range.

Rosemary said she liked the lights and planting, but rather preferred it when Tesco was there.

The Jam Factory

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We went into Oxford with Valerie and Norman. Norman went his own way to see an exhibition at the Ashmolean, while Rosemary, Valerie and I walked on to the Jam Factory. It’s near to the rail station, and is a café/bar /restaurant /exhibition space /entertainment space built from a converted, yes, Jam Factory. We went to see a set of post card sized art works produced by numerous artists which were being auctioned to raise funds for Sobel House. We all selected a few, and started to bid on them over the next few days. Only my bid was successful for an evil looking cat which I bid £5.01 for. I say successful, because no one out bid me. I still did not receive it, it was lost or sent off to someone else. I did receive a replacement card, a Lion, on whom no one bid, but it was not my evil looking cat. Yes, a tad disappointed.

We drank coffee and chocolate while we perused the cards, and looked at some of the other paintings. The men’s loo was decorated in old Beanos. The place was quite pleasant and had some interesting food on the menu. Probably worth while returning to, instead of eating in the usual Vaults and Gardens where we now headed off to.

We passed through the covered market which was semi open on a Sunday. There was an excellent Halloween cake sculptured into the shape of a hacked off leg in the cake shop.

On the junction of Turl Street and Market Street, outside Norah’s Antiques was a production team filming a scene from an episode of Endeavour. We waited and watched them film a street scene with Roger Allam (Inspector Thursday) considering the shop window. There were also quite a few old 60s cars parked in the surrounding streets, so I expect there was quite a bit more filming about to be done.

We walked on to the Vaults and Gardens for lunch, where we were quite quickly served and found somewhere to sit.

After lunch we visited All Souls Collage and took walk around their quads and the chapel.  There is a magnificent screen with niches containing statues of saints, bishops, and monarchs, arranged in rows on either side of a Crucifixion scene, just above the altar, and a Last Judgement, high up under the roof. The original statues, destroyed in the sixteenth century Reformation, were not replaced with the present Gothic imitations until the nineteenth century.

After All Souls, we split, Norman and I took a quick walk around the university parks, while Rosemary and Valerie headed to the new Bodlein library to see the latest Treasures and Jane Austin.exhibitions. We all met up at the library and then went for a beer at the Lamb and Flag before going home.

The James Figg in Thame and the Trials of Monkfish

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Met up with Valerie and Norman, their daughter & her fiancé, for lunch at the James Figg pub in Thame. They had been attending a wedding at Notley Abbey nearby. We had never been to the James Figg, and to be honest we have not been to most of the pubs and restaurants in Thame.  Steve frequents Costa when Rosemary is doing her round of charity shops.

The James Figg is themed on boxing, named after James Figg an English bare-knuckle boxer. He is widely recognized as the first English bare-knuckle boxing champion, reigning from 1719 to 1730.  He was born in Thame. It’s a good pub, with a good choice or real ales, or is that cask ale, or the new trendy phrase of craft ale. In any case, it caters well for beers. Extensive menu, though we wanted to eat relatively lightly, so we all went for starters, each choosing three starters for £10.  This was a kind of tapas meal.

Yes, I can quite recommend the James Figg, maybe Costa is going to see a lot less of me.

We departed for home, Norm and Vallerie driving over to our house for the weekend, while Rosemary and I quickly dropped into Waitrose to buy some more Monkfish. We had decided tonight’s menu was Monkfish. I was looking for a Kilo for the four of us. My first shop the previous day was Tesco in Bicester where they had one filet, just under 350 grams. I bought this, at the same time phoning Sainsburys in Bicester. They too had one small fillet in stock, so I reserved that and walked over there to buy their’s. Good thing I had reserved it because someone else wanted it. It was small, 250 grams.

Waitrose had masses of Monkfish, and large fillets. I bought 400 grams to make up my dish. So, Waitrose came up trumps, but a high premium. Sainsbury was £16 a kilo, Tesco was £20 a kilo and Waitrose £26. Quite a difference in price

Pilton Party 2017

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During the Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza I knew the Pilton Party tickets went on sale. While R and I were drinking at The Who’d A Thought It pub we saw the ticket office queue, snaking around the corner. After our drink, the queue was smaller.  I joined and left with a ticket, cash only. Any tickets left over went on sale on Monday in the village of Pilton.  The rest went on the Internet.  None made it to the Internet, all tickets sold on the two days with no national advertising. It is supposed to be a local event.

On the Friday I drove down to Somerset, had lunch at the The Who’d A Thought It pub and then bought four special Torsy Moorsy fruit cakes from Burns the Bread. Headed over to Pilton and parked in the party car-park. Camping is not catered for, but there were a few vans, and overnight many cars were left in the car park. I parked next to another camper who had been at the Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza, and had been next door to us.

Walked up to the field where the event was held.  It is near where the John Peel stage and The Wood is. (At least I think so.) It was all fenced off, bar food and stage.  Somewhere like 4,000 people were expected, and the weather was lovely.

First on were two winners from the long-running Pilton Working Men’s Club ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition, UK:ID and Arcadia Roots. As you can see not many came to see UK:ID.  A rap band with a woman singer who was very good. I saw a tweet which is asking for bands to audition for next year’s Pilton Party. Though Glastonbury is not running, the party is.  Watch this space.

Next up on the line-up is the fabulous Declan McKenna, who won the Emerging Talent Competition in 2015.  And finally topping the bill this year were the incredible Bastille, who were last in Pilton to play a triumphant set on the Other Stage at Glastonbury 2016. They also had played Leeds & Reading in 2017, where I saw them with Selina..

I have a few pictures of Michael Eavis, should have got a selfie with him. Was so close.  

Back to the camper van where I slept, very noisy in the car park, the party seemed to go on there for a while.  In the morning after a lie in, headed off to find some brunch at a cafe called Hartleys Kitchen.  Its on a country industrial estate and seemed very popular with cyclists on a Saturday. Two groups, one with normal bikes, and another with the latest carbon bikes and SPDs.