Poppy's Tea Rooms

Little Jake has had a rough week health wise this week - so Margaret has too. Hence we went for a local brekkie on Saturday so he was not left for too long.

Poorly Jake

Went up to Poppy Tea Rooms, up at the top of Titchfield Lane by Wickham. It is located within the Park Place garden shop/nursery.

View from tea rooms into garden centre

 

Opens at 0930, but the owner was lovely and let us in 10 minutes early.

Lovely little tea room, and dogs allowed in too!  After our bad experience with our cooked breakfast last week, we did make a point of asking for our breakfast to be over-cooked not under -cooked!

And lovely it was too. Perfect size, good coffee and good value.

A 'cooked' cooked breakfast!!
 

 

They have a great lunch menu too, and you can wander around the garden centre afterwards. And the dogs got a sausage!

Jake a bit better in himself, so took him out to enjoy the sunshine that afternoon  around the farm fields and woods by the Hamble river..

Peggys jealous too.....

 

Still fairly weak so he settled happily into his new mode of transport. Best of both worlds as he rested up whilst enjoying the walkies, though came out for a lie-down in the glorious bluebells.

Awwww

Jess finally standing still!

 

Peggys mission to flatten all the bluebells!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Polly very jealous now as she struggles on longer walks with her arthritis,

Poor wonky Polly

 

but keeps plodding on bless her.

Joints playing up but she keeps going :)

 

Back seat driver is my Pol

 

So we feel a bit better about eating cooked breakfast again, but planning low key outings for a while while Jake is going through a tough time. Paws crossed!

We all love you Mister Jake x

Sleep well folks x

Vero Waffle and Gelato

We don't usually do a brekkie run on a Monday but this week apart from being Easter Monday we had an errand to run in Aldershot. We did a search on Google and chose Vero Waffle and Gelato.

 This web site is pretty basic but a new one is starting soon. After the experience we had last Saturday we couldn't face a full English. Being Bank holiday it didn't open until 11am so we took a wander around a local shopping precinct for an hour or so. We were the first customers in Vero,s but others soon came in and it was soon quite busy. They didn't have any menus on the tables but all the waffle creations were displayed in a glass cabinet.

 We both went for the banana and caramel waffle which turned out to be a very good choice.

It was absolutely delicious.  A nice crispy waffle with caramel sauce, lots of cream and sliced banana topped with chocolate sauce. Hmm..! Could eat it all over again.

Being a nice day it was a very enjoyable drive to Aldershot. 

 We had to go through the tunnel, which Jan always gets quite excited about.




Roads weren't particularly busy and the countryside looked lovely.  Very yellow with all the rape seed.

Now for the real reason we went to Aldershot.  One of my dogs, Jake is finding it more and more difficult to walk very far.  His spirit is willing but his body is getting tired.  He is twelve years old and has several health issues.  So, after a successful bid on ebay we went to collect this:-

This caused quite a bit of amusement amongst my family but Jake is very happy with it. We tried it out for the first time today and he did very well until near the end of the walk when he tried to jump out. He was attached to a very short strap and nearly hung himself.  Will use his harness next time.

Polly and Peggy rolling about laughing.

Jessie showing what she thought of the offer of a lift

A very good walk was had by all. Jake seemed even more tired today when we got home than he usually is, must be all the excitement of a new toy. 

Maybe next week we will be ready to try another cooked breakfast, see you then............

Margaret x 

The Courtyard Kitchen

Headed up to Botley this morning to visit the Courtyard Kitchen, which is in the yard at Botley Mills.

 

Got there for 0900, and we were the first in. Lovely spacious and quaintly furbished old building,

Lovely interior

 

with various hand made crafts and paintings on display for sale.

Lovely snug area

That, sadly, was the good bit. There was one girl working there, about 20 yrs old,  who was nice enough but no overly impressed to have customers (even though they were open). Ordered the full cooked breakfast with 2 coffees.

Coffee - like dishwater (and filter too!). The cooked breakfast arrived, looked lovely.

It looked so good....

Looks can be deceiving. And they were! Yuk!

 

But - the sausage was just about raw. Neither of us would even take it home for the dogs. Ditto the bacon - with fat running off it. Baked beans - fine (difficult to go wrong!), Fried egg ok. Mushrooms - too greasy. Tomato - under-cooked. Toast - wholegrain - but under-toasted.

Such a shame. Wimps that we were, we didn't go and complain straight away (but having it re-cooked wouldn't had made a difference as we were put off by then!). Took the half full plates up to the girl, who did say sorry (not profusely enough though!), and only charged us £5 instead of £15 (we hadn't mentioned the dishwater coffee). Apparently she was the only one in - so cooking as well as serving.

Would it have been better if more staff on? A chef/cook maybe? (this lass didn't look as if she had any chef qualifications) .... who knows.

So we would not recommend this for breakfast, unless you specify you want your cooked breakfast 'cooked'!

To compensate  - we went up the road to the café within the Hillier Garden Centre, Absolute heaven. Cheerful friendly service. Coffee (lovely!) and cake (yum yum).

Lemon cake (top) coffee/vanilla cake (bottom)

 

We have been there before and they do a smashing breakfast (though we are both put off cooked breakfasts now...for how long?!)

Dogs had there usual chilled week, although as it was lovely and warm they have found it fairly hot out walking.

Jessie having a giggle?!

Panting Jake

Smily peg

Pol cooling down on the kitchen floor after a hot walk

 

So we have to carry water if not streams/rivers around. Jake and Jessie came for the evening to stay with Polly and Peggy (and Jan). All well behaved, though hard for Jan to eat her supper with 4 pairs of eyes looking longingly at her food!

The view whilst Jan eating supper (Peg was sitting looking over her shoulder!)

Nice walk this afternoon down at the Strawberry Field in Warsash and along the Hamble river.

Jessie giving her mum palpitations by walking on the wall along the Hamble river

Jake has been doing really well, but ever now and then gets a carry to give his legs a rest.

Jakes mastered the dog 'walk'ing!

 

And he definitely likes being carried as settles in for the ride.

Pol's an expert at eating a marrowbone

Peg struggling to hold her bone

And lastly - a little portrait of Jan's beloved sister (!!), to thank her for her weekly dedication in reading our blog! (she has a link alert - marvellous stuff!)

Jsn's very old elder sister!

Comments always welcome!
xx

Cafe Ethos Fareham

This week we fancied a trip into Fareham and decided to try out Cafe Ethos in West Street.  It's up the station end of Fareham and well worth a visit. They don't have an up to date web site but the link will take you to their facebook page. Also you can find them on Trip Advisor.

The cafe is quite small and cosy with a nice bright and sunny look about it.  You get a very friendly welcome as well which makes all the difference.

A really good breakfast menu at very reasonable prices.  You can have a set menu for the English breakfast or you can create your own, what a good idea!

We both went for the American pancakes which we did enjoy. The pancakes were obviously home made, so much nicer than the packet ones we sometimes have. Two thick slices of bacon and a generous amount of maple syrup, what more could we ask for. Sorry about the photo, we had eaten half of it before we remembered to take it. 

 We will definitely come back again, maybe at a later time of day to try out  their sweet pancakes and waffles  mmm...

We thought their menus were amazing, lots of choice, really makes your mouth water.  Well worth a visit.

Use the link above and visit and like their facebook page, they are very keen to spread the word and to get known.

Saturday afternoon we did one of our local walks again. Down past fields of sheep to a boardwalk over a stream. Very popular with our dogs, lots of lovely mud to roll in, even to eat, yuk! 

Interesting quote on the board walk

"As time passes slowly by this place,
Pause awhile, then so must we."

Don't know the origin of it but feel compelled to read it every time.

Jessie doing a bit of mountaineering

Come on Auntie Jan, where's our goodbye treat?

That's all for this week, byeee............. Margaret x  PS, Polly stayed home to mow the lawn..