Hodnet Hall has recently re-opened for the 2026 season so we took advantage of a sunny day for lunch and a walk around the gardens. We were tempted, as usual by the smoked mackerel Pate served in a dainty cup.

Lunch and an afternoon stroll with friends. What more could a girl ask for

We spent the morning looking at temporary residential care options for my mum who has still not fully recovered from her recent bout of delirium. We have a winner but will check out a few other options before making a decision.

After our visits to care homes it was time for lunch. We hesitated only briefly before deciding to return to Hodnet Hall, one of our favourite places to have lunch. This time I chose humous wraps. After lunch I couldn’t resist the short walk to see the Magnolias again, they are magnificent and the sunshine was showing them off to perfection.

Later we visited mum to find that she was not accepting visitors. She had once again refused to have her hair cut after looking forward to the pampering session for days and was giving the care workers a hard time.

We left…

The sun had got its hat on so it would have been rude not to go out for lunch.

Hodnet Hall provides lovely lunches and cakes, a perfect choice. The gardens are lovely at this time of year with colourful blooms in flower and bluebells along the pathway.

Lunch and a sunny garden walk what more could I ask for…

We walked around the walls at Ludlow Castle before purchasing some sandwiches which we enjoyed sitting on a bench next to the castle walls. Afterwards we went for a further walk before visiting the excellent bookshop.

We made our home via the Ludlow Food Centre where we hoped to find a slice of cake but that was not to be. Taking the scenic route home we stopped in Much Wenlock  still with cake in mind. We were unsuccessful on our quest so we settled for an ice cream instead.

Whilst enjoying lunch on the patio we were interrupted by a loud knock on the door. Mr C disappeared and emerged around the side of the house with another man. He was assessing the cost of weeding, power-washing and applying weedkiller to our driveway and patio. I am always wary of using the services of people who turn up on my doorstop but on this occasion the van was personalised and had contact phone numbers on the side.

The job needed doing so I accepted Mr C’s judgment.

The work proceeded and I noticed that a lady was doing all the work whilst the man who had knocked on the door was standing drinking pop and giving directions on what to do. Occasionally I heard them arguing, I left them to get on with the job which turned out to be a big mistake on my part.

They kept ringing our doorbell and I had to move my car (from its off drive location) on more than one occasion. When I arrived back from one of my car moves I was confronted with a ‘non social distancing’ encounter… Did we want the drive sanding.

The man was insistent a few minutes after our conversation that Mr C came to talk to him about the sanding. A deal was struck, yes we would like the sanding. What I didn’t realise until later is that the man kept gesticulating to Mr C (demanding attention) as he was looking outside from his office window whilst on a telephone conference.

There was a bit of a saga about money as they left for the day saying they would come back the next day to finish the job when the corner of the patio had dried out. Could we pay them some cash? No we could not we would pay the money into their bank account.

After they left I realised why the change of heart from bank transfer to immediate cash in hand. At the back of our house they had power-washed all the mud and sand into the corner of our patio rather than free-flowing any mud and sand in the other direction. In doing so they had blocked our kitchen water outflow pipeways causing water to pool on our patio and leaving it impossible to use our kitchen sink and washing machine.

Later as we were dining we were again interrupted. Have you paid me? I can’t see the money!

Fortunately we have a service contract that covers blocked pipes and a lovely young man came to our rescue first thing in the morning.

Later that morning we received a phone call from the ‘weeding & dealing’ power-wash man to say that his father had been rushed into hospital so he couldn’t finish the job that he started.  What a con man! We finished cleaning up the mud and sand from the patio.

Then I went for long walk in the afternoon sunshine

]]> http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2020/06/03/a-bit-of-a-saga-2/feed/ 6 http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2018/07/17/shropshire-lavender/ http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2018/07/17/shropshire-lavender/#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2018 22:33:41 +0000 CherryPie http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/?p=21033

Recently I have been reading a local guidebook to give me new inspiration for places to visit in Shropshire. One of the places sounded perfect for the beautiful summer weather that we have been experiencing, so the weekend before last I decided it would be nice to take Mr C out to a mystery location for lunch.

He was a little bit reluctant to go out for lunch, but I persuaded him. I programmed the SatNav and it took us on a delightful magical mystery tour. That SatNav route took us in quite a different direction than I would have instinctively chosen. We arrived at our countryside destination in a timely manner avoiding the nearby town.

Our destination was Shropshire Lavender, a small family run lavender farm with a tea room serving freshly baked cakes and scones. The lavender farm is set in the rolling Shropshire countryside about 3 miles from the market town of Newport on the North Shropshire-Staffordshire border.

Choosing lunch was difficult… should I opt for a lavender scone or lavender and lemon cake. I chose the latter and did not regret my choice

When we had finished our visit to the lavender farm we weren’t quite ready to go home, so we perused the mapbook for a nearby place of interest. We settled on Boscobel House famous as hiding places of King Charles II after defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

Later in the day we enjoyed fine dining on the patio

On a soggy saturday we drove to Banbury for a family gathering at the delightful Little Amsterdam Cafe. We ended up spending most the afternoon there due to an accident on the motorway causing holdups on the journey.

The pancakes were as delicious as they had been on our previous visit and the staff were charming. They loved the fact that we had all travelled from some distance to meet up in in a central point and we had chosen their cafe.

A good time was had by one and all