Tag Archives: tea room

Slow Start Sunday

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Slaidburn

I rose late and sat down at 9.00. By 10.37 I had done nothing but  read a few blogs and do a few comments, including answering the ones people had made to me. And I mean a few, I only read about five blogs on a regular basis. One featured an excellent poem and i was able to feast my eyes on photographs of Scotland and the New Forest.  By 11.06 I had written about 150 words, none of them interesting, and most of them had been in one four minute burst. At that point I decided to cut them and start again. So here I am. I have made lunch, watched an episode of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and written the first paragraph. It is base in the area round Clitheroe and one of the episodes is shot in Slaidburn., which has featured in these pages before.  It’s a good excuse to reuse some photos.

Slaidburn War Memorial

I spent some of the morning thinking about Roger McGeough’s poem The Way Things Are. Particularly these lines

No, old people do not walk slowly
because they have plenty of time.

I was once in a magazine with Roger McGough. I was quite excited by that, though I’m not sure he was equally as excited at the thought of appearing in a poetry magazine with me.

When I first wrote the title i was quite pleased with it, now I’m finding myself quite irritated.  A slow start featuring most of the morning is one thing, but a slow start that has involved all the day until half past three in the afternoon is quite another. I’m moving slowly to a conclusion, but in a 100 words forward, then delete 80 of them, sort of way.

Julia is back now. It must have been a slow day at the tea room too. My day is going to slow down a little more now. She just told me that everyone wanted to get off quickly because they wanted go home and watch the snooker. Some pensioners, it seems, can move quite quickly when they want to do something.

Trees near Slaidburn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day153

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It’s actually day 154 because I’m late again. And I’m going to talk about  Day 138. That seems to have been 16 days ago now, how time flies.

We went to Gibraltar Point, as I said, and had tea and cake in the visitors’ centre. It is quite new and has extensive views of saltmarsh. OK, that’s not really selling it, is it? Saltmarsh is dull stuff in quantity. You can’t see the sea and even the masts of boats moored in the creek don’t add much interest. The whale bones are slightly interesting, but we’d seen them before. The framework is new but the bits of dead animal are much the same as they were last time I saw them, just arranged as a sculpture instead of being laid out on the grass.

Cup of Tea

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, we had tea and cake. The tea was good and the cake was better. Julia had elderflower and something cake, I can’t actually remember what the something was, though it was additionally decorated with flowers. I had chocolate and cherry. There were several juicy cherries in the slice, which was pleasantly chocolatey without being overpowering. Both were nice and moist and were of satisfactory size.

Chocolate and Cherry Cake

I should have written it all down before my memories began to fade, so sorry about the vague nature of the review. We ate inside, but you can eat on the balcony too. If you eat outside you don’t get people blocking your view, which is what happened to us when a couple came and sat at a table on the balcony. I had been looking at miles of dull saltmarsh when suddenly the view was replaced by expanses of sunburn and a big straw hat. There were other clothes too, but I forget what they were like. Garish, I do recall. And not big enough.

Elderflower and Something cake

Scone Chronicles 35 (Part 2)

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So, the moment of truth…

Was our second visit to Tagg Lane Dairy as successful as the first?

I decided to try a different cake this time, and opted for the Sticky Toffee cake. I cannot lie to you, it was even better than last time. There was plenty of potential for it being too sweet and sickly, but it was not. It was just pleasantly sweet and toffee flavoured.

The cake, with swirls of toffee flavour, was excellent, with a lovely lightness of texture and tiny cubes of toffee embedded in a toffee icing. It was delicious, and, although it probably had a fatal dose of sugar for a diabetic, was just right for me.

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Sticky Toffee Cake

The coffee and walnut cake, which was Julia’s choice was as good as last time, but not as good as the Sticky Toffee cake. You know the bit in Henry V where he says. And gentlemen in England now a-bed, Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day?

Well, if Shakespeare had eaten the Sticky Toffee cake at Tagg Lane Dairy he would have written this speech about the cake rather than wasting it on Agincourt. It was that good. If I was marking out of ten, I’d give it eleven.

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Tagg Lane Dairy

The premises are new and , according to a wall plaque had been built with the help of funding from the EU. People may well want to think of this in the future, as I’m not sure the government will be funding many such projects in the coming years.

Unlike the cafe at Brierlow Bar, or the one at Home Farm (where we used to be based) it was not cluttered with a multiplicity of fashionable junk but was just neat and clean and a pleasure to use.

View from Tagg Lane Dairy
Tagg Lane – the snow hangs on
View from Tagg Lane Dairy

Finally, as I was taking a few wintry landscape shots near the gate, a female Sparrowhawk flew in to the yard flying so low she actually used the gate. She flew past me at about knee high, so close that I could almost have touched her. She then flew round the perimeter of the farmyard and flipped over the drystone wall to see if she could surprise anything on the other side.

We had Magic on the Marshes two weeks ago, now it’s magic on the Moors. I have been very lucky with what I’ve seen in the last few weeks. I just wish I could photograph it all to show you.

We also picked up some raw milk while we were there. I’m not sure whether it does me any good or not but I know that around half the time I have raw milk to drink my skin seems to improve. It might be a placebo effect, but if it feels better I’ll accept that, even if it’s because I’m deluded. It still feels better, whatever the reason.

 

Scone Chronicles XXVIII – Tagg Lane Dairy

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We’ve been here once before, though on that visit we just bought raw milk, as we’d already had tea and cake at the bookshop down the road.

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Coffee and Walnut Cake

 

Although there’s no scientific basis for believing raw milk is good for you, I did feel a bit better after drinking the last lot and thought I’d have some more. When reading up on it I was surprised to find that it’s completely banned in Scotland, and many other countries.

Strange how you can buy cigarettes or alcohol from the supermarket but raw milk is heavily controlled.

Anyway, back to the review.

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Tea, cake and milk in a proper bottle

Tagg Lane Dairy is a working farm in the Derbyshire countryside and has a slightly stronger smell of cows than is normal at a tourist destination. Apart from fresh air it has raw milk, organic burgers and a very nice cafe.

The cafe is quite new and is very clean and unfussy. It avoids the modern curse  of being cluttered with tables made from floorboards and various industrial surplus and is far better for that. I don’t want to eat in a workshop I want to eat in a cafe.

The menu seemed to be a bit limited, though I didn’t look too hard at the time. It seemed to offer three sorts of cake and mince pies, but it may do more. It had Victoria sponge, Lemon Drizzle cake and Coffee and Walnut cake. To be honest, you really don’t need more.

They also have plenty of ice cream, or maybe gelato. I’m not quite sure of the difference, but it was too cold for either of them.

Tagg Lane Dairy
Tagg Lane Dairy
Tagg Lane Dairy

To be honest, the best bit wasn’t the excellent cake or the nice clean cafe. It wasn’t even the view (we sat outside so I could take some photos of the views). It was the staff. They were cheerful, efficient and more besides. I’m going to have to use the word “lovely” here. It’s a high praise, and in danger of being gushing, but they deserve it.

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Julia says the blank spot in the middle reminds her of something off CSI – the murder of an innocent cake

So, to sum up, a nice simple stop for tea, cake, ice cream and raw milk. Lovely staff, a pleasant experience and something to look forward to next time I take a trip to Derbyshire.

 

The Scone Chronicles – the 6th visit (the one with No Scones)

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We went to the Framework Knitters Museum yesterday and are now Friends of the Framework Knitters Museum. It didn’t actually cost any more than paying to visit the museum and we can now visit for the rest of the year without further payment, get a discount on refreshments and go to special events. I’m going to be quite an expert by the end of the year.

Regarding refreshments, this might not be as good as it sounds.

After going round the museum and being well and truly demonstrated too by keen and knowledgeable volunteers, we went to the tea room. We had a nice cup of tea served by the lady who had signed us up as Friends (clearly a paragon amongst multi-tasking volunteers). The tea room was traditional, and the china was fine. The tea came with a packet of biscuits.

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Chintzy china with reflected light fitting

So, you ask, what about the scones? Even if you don’t ask I’m going to tell you. They were absent. There was no evidence of scones. In fact, the only comestibles in evidence were muffins in bags.

I’m hoping this might be temporary.

But deep in my heart I fear it may not be a simple short supply situation, but a full-blown serious scone shortage.

That’s a sad summer scenario.

Day 102!

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After failing in my challenge to write 100 posts in 100 days I decided to keep quiet about my new challenge, which was to write 100 posts in 100 days.

I’m consistent, if nothing else.

I’m also better at writing than I am at counting. When I checked to see if it was 100 days yet, I found it was actually 102 days since the first post of the run.

It doesn’t really matter – I’ve managed 100 consecutive days. Now I can relax.

To celebrate I’m going to have a nice cup of tea and chuck in a gratuitous robin picture.

We had the talk on framework knitters last night, the one I nearly went to last week. I’m going to visit within the coming month, and check out the tea room, so watch this space!

 

Scarborough, Sandwiches and a Broken Phone

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This morning (Thursday)  I broke my phone. It slipped from my hand and hit the pavement face first. I’ve dropped it many times before but this time the screen shattered. In itself it’s annoying, but the full importance will be revealed later…

The weather on Wednesday lived up to its forecast so we swung into action with a trip to the coast. It was Julia’s only day off of the week so I thought I’d treat her to a day at the seaside.

We drove further north than usual and visited Wetherby Services for elevenses (breakfast had been toast, which I don’t actually recognise as a meal). We’ve stopped there once before and were impressed by the architecture.

Sadly, having decided to have a bacon baguette from Upper Crust, the architecture remained the only impressive part of the visit. Too late, we remembered that this was the situation after the previous visit. The bacon tasted of fish.

From there we turned towards Teeside, dropped down through the moors and emerged on the coast at the top end of Whitby near the Rugby Club.  A few years ago Nottingham U15s went on tour to Scarborough. Scarborough Rugby Club, with their £10 million facility, didn’t reply to my enquiry about a match.  Despite it being last minute, Whitby stepped in and hosted us.

They made us welcome and lent us several players (including a full Yorkshire player) to augment our squad. By “squad” I mean 11 forwards and a scrum half who had spent the previous day and night on a training diet of seaside rock, chips and Red Bull.

All in all, I always feel a warm glow when driving past the club.

We had crab sandwiches at Mrs Botham’s. They were excellent. The photos are currently stuck on my camera. Attempts to extract them, trying to swipe the shattered screen, did not go well.  At quiet times of the year you can park outside the shop, obtaining a parking disc from the newsagent.  There are some very interesting shops along the street.

Finally, we went to Scarborough.

The vessel in the featured image is the MV Coronia, the second excursion ship of that name to sail from Scarborough. Built as the Brit, she cruised the Norfolk coast from 1935 to 1939 befire being taken up by the Admiralty and renamed HM Tender Watchful. She spent the war in hard but unglamorous work – boom defence on the Humber, resupplying destroyers in Yarmouth Roads and working on PLUTO (Pipeline Under the Ocean).

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For a short time in 1940 she was one of the ships that rescued troops from Dunkirk, bringing 900 home. One of the crew at that time spoke of clearing body parts from the deck and having to beach the badly damaged ship on the return to Dover.

The other shots show the castle above the town and a painted bicycle – probably from the recent Tour de Yorkshire.

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Escape to Derbyshire (Part 2)

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After lunch, the sun went in, which was a shame because I had wanted some shots of autumn colour and what is scarlet and gold in sunlight is just shades of brown when overcast.

After buying our selection from the shop we decided that the cafe, despite some excellent reviews on Tripadvisor, looked a bit busy and cramped so we decided to give it a miss.

At that point I decided to chance my arm and mentioned in a casual manner that the refreshments at the Brierlow Bar bookshop were always acceptable.

“We aren’t buying any books.”

“Nothing, my dear,” I said, “could be further from my thoughts.”

As a salesman I was always told that sincerity was the hardest thing to fake, but I like to think I’m pretty good at it.

Half an hour later we stepped into the shop, turned to the toilets (it’s my age, you know) and…

…they have built a whole new cafe.

My jaw dropped.

Change, I find, is not the same thing as improvement. However, in this case the change does seem to be an improvement.

We had prize-winning Novus tea, served in a pot, with extra hot water, tea strainers and milk in one of those little bottles that looks like an old-style school milk bottle. The tea is bright and golden when poured and tastes very pleasant. I’m afraid I don’t have a wide vocabulary of tea terms.

Being (a) surprised and (b) thirsty, I didn’t really take in much else about the place. The tables have good chunky tops and varied ironwork supports and the chairs are a mixed bag of second hand items (or an eclectic mix as we bloggers call them). However, the important things to note are that you can browse the cookery book titles whilst seated, no important books have been lost to the cafe and after two large cups of tea we still couldn’t see the bottom of the pot. I like that. Quality is good in tea, but quantity is even better.

In the end I was allowed to buy four books – two for me and two for Julia, so I’m still wondering who did best out of this visit.