A beautiful sunny Sunday morning… and I am heading off from one home “in’t countreh” (imagine Hagrid saying that – yes I am re-reading Harry Potter!) having visited my sister and her family in Surrey, I take a train to Waterloo and a tube to Seven Sisters and then another train to ‘Ware’. Why am I going there? BFF Holly Golightly’s folks have finally given up the big smoke of Harrow for fresh pastures in the counties, Hertforshire in this case. So I am going for my annual visit and catch up with the bestie’s family.
On proudly having made it from one outer-London county to another on the other side, I call Holly and tell her ‘I’m hereeee!’ and she is also ‘there’ but asks me ‘where’ to which I of course reply ‘Ware’. Sorry couldn’t resist! But it is actually true… we always talked about Ware so I got off the train there when actually I could have gone one more stop to Hertford where she was waiting! Oh well, she drove over and picked me up with her nephew Joshua, who is just adorable. We headed back to the house to meet ‘Nanny, grandad, aunty’ and the dogs; Tinkerbell and Diesel. The bungalow is transformed since last I was there in Jan 2013 for a wedding show. I even had the pleasure of seeing the rest of the family, who actually live down the road in ‘Ware’ and popped over. The garden was the equivalent of a Zoo for Joshua’s little brother, who is running around poking frogs on lily pads and trying to count the endless pond of coi carp – there must be at least 30 of them swimming around in there in all different colours. It was beautiful and magical.
After a quick catch up, we get down to business, what’s on today’s agenda? Dog walk! We take Tink and Diesel and head off down the road and around the corner, into – countryside! A beaten track takes us past some fields with cows and greenery, until we end up in another larger field and have to walk through knee hight grass (in my case this is more approaching thigh height) to get to the other side… My nose is running and I am sneezing like crazy – why cant they invent hayfever medication that actually works? Tinkerbell has never looked so happy. Oh to be a dog in the sunshine!
After our quick-ish walk, we get back to the car and make our way to our reward… lunch! We had planned to book Sunday Roast at the Farmer’s Boy, where we went last year and loved, unfortunately it seems to have closed down, which is shame as I dont know many places as nice, friendly and with great value for money as we got there – and open fires! We take a recommendation and go to the white horse hotel in Hertingfordbury, which is a little Hamlet nearby. The hotel restaurant, wasnt quite the pub setting we were hoping for, but on such a hot day it was nice to have a choice of indoors or in the garden. We still plumped for the Sunday Roast and a glass of white wine, and even pushed the boat out to share a starter. When we saw a plate of the roast go past to another table however, we quickly realised it was a mountain of food and cancelled the prawn starter! The food was good, good value at £10 each for food, but I dont think we will be going back. It just was missing that authenticity of character you want from a real rural spot for a rest and some ‘vittles’.
And then back to the folks for a spot of tea and cake (that coffee cake was delicious Aunty A!) and fawning over last year’s wedding pics. And all too soon the sun was setting and it was time to take the train back to the polluted haze that is London. It was nice to get a whiff of country life… but unfortunately I still dont think I am ready to hang up my heels and live that good life just yet!
