A Tour of Britain!

I apologise to anyone who may have noticed I haven’t posted for a while – two sudden things happened, neither of them lunch, which caused this hiatus.  

The first was that I fell and hurt my hand so couldn’t type for a couple of weeks and the second was a spur of the moment decision to tour the country visiting friends and family. By the time my hand was better I was unable to use the internet because ... yes, you guessed, I was in Norfolk! Very little connectivity there.

Firstly we visited friends in Wiltshire – pretty good weather here and as green and lush as we could wish for.

Secondly my sister and her family on Mersea Island off the coast of Essex, she of the excellent Art Café fame  – more about this visit in my next post or so as we had a most wonderful spontaneous alcohol tasting session!

Then to my brother and his family in poor old virtually internet-less Norfolk as mentioned above. Here we just played and relaxed and caught up with him and his, including the dogs!

Next we passed through Northumbria to eat the Very Best Fish and Chips in the Whole Wide World and Universe Ever. The place to go is Harbour View at Seaton Sluice, it was a 30 mile detour off our route but well worth it. They have limited online presence but I did find a Google+ page with some info. 

We always have haddock and it is always superb, skinless and coated in a wonderful crisp, crunchy salty batter. We have mushy peas with it and I drink a cider although my real man does the thing properly with a pot of tea. Would you believe he ate the whole of his haddock and chips (pictured here alongside his big manly arm to give an idea of size) and then kindly finished off my smaller portion which was still too much for me.

We are now on the Isle of Mull visiting one of my oldest friends and her family where, of course, the internet is much better, so here I am!

The weather has been Not Very Good At All up here – 4ºC the other day in Glencoe and now cool, rainy with 45 mph winds but it’s still a lovely place. The bluebells, primroses and violets are still in flower and everywhere is bursting forth with spring.

Last night we ate at little restaurant which is set up in the front room of someone’s house– Ballygown, I recommend it wholeheartedly.

The food was very good (I had delicious Salmon and Potato Dauphinoise followed by a warm Fudgy Brownie with Raspberries and Cream), everything including the pasta, superb bread etc. was homemade and the service was impeccable which is particularly impressive as the waiter is 4½ years old!

I think he was just helping his Mum but he brought out cutlery and wine glasses (it’s a bring-your-own sort of place so far as drinks are concerned), cleared dishes, took orders for coffee (although felt unsure he could write such a big word on his pad) and when asked if we could pay usefully said “We take cards too, you know”.  I think he is set for an excellent career.

We have managed to explore the island and go for some walks and I picked lots of wild garlic which, not having my usual well stocked store cupboard, has been a godsend.  I have made ...

~   Tomato & Wild Garlic Soup

~   Pasta in Wild Garlic Alfredo

~   Cheese & Wild Garlic Mayonnaise on Toast

... and so on and so forth. Read more about lovely Wild Garlic here, but you might be a bit late for it Down South!  

Speaking of which off home to Cornwall very soon where I hope to properly resume my blogging.

Later!