Month: June 2015

It is difficult to find a good restaurant in France but I can always rely on beetroot baked in an oven.

I have come to realise how spoilt we are in North London surrounded by so many good restaurants with a wide range of cuisines.  Normally we choose an Indian when we go out but are looking forward to eating at the Lebanese restaurant I’ve been told of and there is a Japanese one near it.  As I have written in a previous blog, my favourite non-Indian restaurant , L’Orangerie is just 8 km away so all is not lost though a decent Indian restaurant would be perfect. 

We recently  went to Fouras and had a lunch on the point where oysters are harvested.  The oysters were just magnificent the rest of the meal less so. 

Next time I’ll just have a dozen of so oysters and fish soup I think.

There is a quaint restaurant nearby in the small hotel “Au Bon Accueil“.  It does not have a web site but there is a small picture of it and map on Google.  For some reason it is described as an Italian restaurant but it has a French menu with paella and accordion on Fridays.  The ambience is superb and the husband and wife who own it delightful welcoming hosts, hippies I think.  The paella was not as good as it has been but the cold buffet for hors d’oeuvres and the atmosphere of the place made up for it, especially the accordion.  I certainly recommend it.

Finally I need to mention brown shrimps, or grey shrimps as the French call them.  I always buy them in the market and have them for lunch on Saturday.  I am sure Leclerc sell them so I could have them more often.  I’ll have a look.

My sister is over rom the USA and we thought to go to Wales for a couple of days.  We stayed in a delightful  B&B Cwmbach Cottages Guesthouse.  It was quiet, except for the glorious bird song, and the owner wonderfully gave me Bara Lawr with my breakfast on the last day.  It is lovely with egg and bacon. Nearby is the Crown and Sceptre pub which serves delicious, hot food which was a decided bonus.  Monday Valerie visited a friend in Neath and Sarah and I went to see my brother-in-law in Pont-y-Berem a small village 10 miles southeast of Carmarthen.  It was an enjoyable reminiscing visit.  The village is much spruced up since the days I would visit (see my collection Poems from Wales).  John told me that as well as being a drinker, Mr. Rednose as the children called him, was a prolific womaniser with mistresses all around and in the village.  I may have to rewrite that particular poem!

After another meal in the Crown and Sceptre that evening Valerie suggested we went to look at the sea at Aberavon.  It was pouring with rain, grey with a strong and cold wind.  Muggins foolishly left the car to video whilst sister and wife sat warm and dry in the car.

I wondered why the camera was shaking until I realise that I was so cold I was shivering.  Idiot!

The next day we drove back and decided to stop in Windsor for lunch.  The Royal Standard was flying which was a bonus for me.  Swans gathered by the river cruisers; the kiosk was selling food for them.

I’m a sucker for this and bought some for us all to feed them

which was appreciated by the swans though they may have been better off scouring the river.

I love being close to birds and animals and would hand feed swans when we took a narrow boat to Hertford on the River Lea. They would swim up when we were moored to the bank.  So when a large gentleman swan nudged my posterior I was delighted to feed him.

I was quite disappointed when the food ran out but, it was time to leave for home.

Here it was sunny, dry and welcoming.  The poppy in the garden though past its best was still beautiful.  It is one of my favourite flowers.

We are lucky to have many open spaces and gardens in Enfield and Myddleton House has one of them.

Magnificent wisteria planted by Edward Bowles in 1903 by the bridge that crossed the New River when it flowed here. It’s trunk is almost as thick as my waist and the flowers beautiful.

I love poppies and daisies and a step away from the bridge is a tiny meadow of them.

Iris came to earth on a rainbow with a message from the gods  for mankind.  Not sure what that was but these blooms are lovely behind the greenhouse, maybe she bought these?

There are many seats and benches where you can sit, read, gaze into space or do nothing at all.

Or you can be photographed

behind these great succulents.

I could not resist taking a picture of these flowers looking like characters in Dr Who.

For 20 pence you can buy some food to feed the  carp but the lazy duck and few feeders makes me think they are over fed.

It was approaching 1700 and someone was ringing a hand bell so it was time to leave.  I did not want to be locked in.