Sunday 21 October 2007

24 hours in the land of Farming and Cider


A mixed weekend of Exhaustion, Relaxation, Stress, Anxiety and Depressive shopping, in Somerset and Cirencester.

David wanted to go to a railway group meeting thing, because it was the only place he could get hold of some specific things he wanted, so we drove to Wells dropped David off at the meeting and then Mum and i drove onto Clarks Shopping Village. a factory outlet village in Street. there were plenty of shops and plenty of choice but Mum and I just couldn't find anything we liked. we started with lunch in the Food Factory, where we made up our own lunch with choices from the salad bar. then worked our way round the shops. what did we manage to buy in almost 4 hours other than lunch? - An apple corer...... something we did need at least i guess.....

so then we headed back and picked david up and went into Wells for a walk around and a drink. Ended up here. nice quiet cosy place, but wouldn't want to be there at 8pm when the rugby started!

we then headed to Wookey to find the B&B, The Burcott Mill. Dinner was just across the road in the form of The Burcott Inn. The basic menu was nothing exciting, however the specials board was more enticing. The 4 Main course specials were braised rabbit, guineafowl, shoulder or lamb or mediteranian monkfish casserole. Mum went for the lamb (£13), David chose steak and ale pie (£8.50) and i chose the monkfish (£11). the shoulder of lamb that mum chose was exactly that! - A WHOLE shoulder of lamb! plus carrots and courgettes and new potates... the meat was enough to feed 2 or three by our noraml portion sizes. needless to say mum didn't finish it all. David seemed very pleased with his pie which came dished up on a plate with the puff pastry lid placed on top, again served with carrots and courgettes and also chips. my monfisk was in a tomato, leek, pepper and mushroom casserole sauce and came with carrots and courgettes - i requested it with out the new potatoes though. with a cheese plate for pudding of Cheddar, Stilton, Biscuits, Celery and a couple of orange wedges the food was superb in every respect. the service was attentive and the landlord provided a welcoming and warming atmosphere. even when the locals came in to waatch the rugby (there can't have been more than 10 of them!) they went into a seperate room from the bar area (we chose to eat there rather than in the dining area) it still wasn't too roudy and remained a pleasant atmosphere.
so then back to the B&B for a restful nights sleep.

breakfast this morning consisted of a full english (sausage, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and a fried egg) for david and scrambled egg for mum. bread, both white and brown (made with flour from the mill by a local baker) was on the side for you to help yourself to make toast etc, as well as homemade jams, marmalades, mustards and local honey. also on offer were a selection of cereals, yogurts and fruit.

we then headed on towards cirencester to see david's parents. on route we stopped at farringtons farm shop where we came away with some oatmeal (for my home made veggie haggis), a bottle of pear cider and a bottle of Bath beer/ale.

The toilets @Farrington farm shop

our only other hold up on the way was the queue to get into Westonbirt Arboretum to see the autumn colours.

a quick stop at Waitrose for flowers and wine for David's parents proved succesful for me also in that i found some McSween's Vegetarian Haggis there, so bought 3 to stock up the freezer!

after lunch at david's parents' in cirencester (which proved to me i'm not able to eat at other people's houses even if i can eat out at a restaurant/cafe) and a walk round cirencester, which a little retail therapy for me it was home. we made it by about half 7pm finally with some busy motorways.

so a mixed weeked from my point of view i guess.

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