Our friend and former landlady Sue picked us up in time for lunch at the garden centre in Killinghall. Lunch at a garden centre doesn‘t sound particularly exciting, does it - but this is not just any garden centre café, it is the Paradise at Daleside, with Michelin-starred chef Frances Atkins. You can look her up on www.greatbritishchefs.com.
Booking is essential there, as it is so popular. Staff is very friendly and helpful, and not the least bit snooty. The atmosphere is welcoming, not over the top, and the food is simply fabulous.
After our meal, we had a wander round the garden centre itself and were impressed by how beautifully presented everything was. There was a section with rare plants, which I found very interesting. Of course we didn‘t buy anything - I don‘t have a garden, and besides we would have had to somehow get our purchases back to Germany on the train. But it was nice to look at.
In the afternoon, we went to visit Mary for a while, again sitting in her back garden.
Returning to the cottage, we were invited for a drink in the garden with our current landlord and -lady; her daughter and her husband had come for a visit, and we stayed for a chat until we‘d finished our drinks and then let them get on with their cooking. Lovely people, all of them.
I took off for a very brief walk in the evening light before my sister and I had our own evening meal - very light after the sumptuous lunch we‘d had!
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| Don’t you think this building looks like something out of Harry Potter? |
Sunday (28.07.2024) was very warm and sunny again. A little after 11, my sister-in-law picked us up for the drive south to the Barnsley area, where most of the family live and where we were having a family gathering at the Burntwood Court bar & restaurant.
It was so good to see the aunts, uncle, cousin, my other sister-in-law and her husband! A total of 9 meant that the gathering allowed everyone to participate in the conversation and catch up with everybody, not just the two or three people sitting closest to you, as it can be the case with larger gatherings.
The roads were busy, but we were back in Ripon by 8:00 pm, with no major hold-ups. I needed to stretch my legs and went for a short walk in the evening sun.
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| Ripon Cathedral looks particularly beautiful this time of day. |
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| A different view of the cathedral. |
I had to enlarge the photos to get a good look at those desserts! Wow! Do they look yummy! I can see why you want to get in lots of walks as you are able to enjoy so much delicious food!
ReplyDeleteFrom her seat, my sister had a good view of the desserts on the shelves behind me! There were so many to choose from, and they all looked fantastic. The three of us were very happy with our choices, both for the main course and dessert, and the dry white we‘d been advised about was a perfect match.
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