Hammonds Farm

Walk on a warm sunny day from Nomansland Common carpark and Hammonds Farm.

This hook-nosed chappie is on the path alongside Rifle Butts Wood.

Oslo Court

To St John’s Wood and the incomparable Oslo Court. What a pleasant surprise to be greeted by Neal who chided us for leaving it so long. We last saw him in February 2020. We expressed our delight in seeing him, but when we said we were told last month that he was only working lunches he was puzzled and assured us he was working evenings…

We started on the Melba toast and crudities and turned down the warm bread roll while sipping a glass of lovely house Champagne and I saved some to go with my starter of whitebait.

As usual I had Escalope of Veal Holstein with Pommes Lyonnaise, this time accompanied with green beans and broccoli, and a few of Joan’s fried courgette batons.

As usual I couldn’t finish this huge portion and was again chided by Neal for not clearing the plate, but that didn’t stop him from tempting me with desserts. He wouldn’t leave without taking an order, ‘just a taste’… 

I weakened and had a lemon tart that really tasted of lemon. (And Neal added some raspberries and two scoops of vanilla ice cream)

But that wasn’t the end, there were also petit fours to go with coffee.

And then I heaved myself to St John’s Wood tube station to start the journey home

Criccieth

 

To Criccieth for the week, arriving Saturday 2 July, with a lunch stop at Dobbies, Shrewsbury. The fruit scones were the best ever, just the right combination of soft and freshness, not dry or hard.

 

We stayed at Ty Jem, a new four-storey house by the railway station.

 

The master bedroom was on the top floor with distant views of the sea through to roof-window. The house has a monkey theme, and this was a disturbing bedside light.

 

Dan cooked roast beef on Sunday evening and took afternoons off all week.

 

 On Monday 4^th Dan drove us to Pwllheli where we plundered the excellent Gwin Lynn Wines, and in the evening we went to Dylan’s on the beach.

 

I had an OK burger and the waitress found us more bottles of the very drinkable Longbeach Pinotage, which is sadly no longer listed.

 

Tuesday 5^th we walked along the coastal path and spent time watching seals sunning themselves on rocks. Back at Criccieth we saw a dolphin, and watched it till it swam away, leaping over the water.

We dined in Yr Hen Fecws Restaurant in Porthmadog after reading a glowing report about it in a recent newspaper article.

Unfortunately for me the dish I’d been looking forward to Vegetable Wellington (Puff Pastry filled with Spinach, Sweet Potato, Onion, Peppers, Mushroom and Pine Nuts, Madeira Sauce served with Sauteed Potatoes seemed to be warmed up by placing under a very hot flame. The top of the pastry was burned black, so so-called sauté potatoes were slices of boiled new pots again with blackened bits and no sign of being in a sauté pan. The Madeira sauce seemed to be uncooked tomato juice with some veg in it. But the the filling was good and the others were happy with their meat dishes.

Wednesday 6^th we drove to Penryn Castle near Bangor, had lunch in their café and toured the impressive house.  

Penryn Castle is an amazing huge stately house constructed in the 19C in the style of a mediaeval castle with impressive views and grounds, though it crazily closes at 16:00 even though there’s another four hours of daylight so we didn’t have time to see the grounds. Next time.

 

We dined back in our Criccieth rented house. Spice Bank is  a good Indian in Criccieth 

however Dan is a regular at Sima Tandoori in Porthmadog so he brought a delicious meal from them, which we enjoyed with Pongracz MCC and 2019 Kanonkop Kadette Pinotage.

 

Thursday 7^th I took my Kindle and one of our new camp chairs to the beach, The lifeboat was pushed into the sea by a waterproofed tractor and sped off into the distance for manoeuvres with a wave hopping helicopter.

 

In the evening Dan and Krisie brought fish and chips from Tremadog which we had with an assortments of Sauvignon Blancs from Lynn Wines in Pwllheli.

 

Friday 8^th we took the train to Barmouth where Dan joined us for lunch 

and a walk across the rickety wooden train bridge across the Bar.

This view inland from the bridge reminded me of the middle Rhine.

We met this chappie  on the beach

and saw this sign at the harbour.

In the evening we met Dan and Krisie at The Square Restaurant   in Tremadog’s square. The place has been renovated and expanded since were last there.

I had fillet steak and we had several bottles of a decent Malbec.

Saturday 9^th Dan came in the morning to carry cases down stairs and we left by the 10am check out heading to our a lunch stop at Dobbies.

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