The last fling of the holidays

choosing breakfast at Jo's Place

We went out for the day with Daughter and SiL and Miss Em. As Mr M's knees are not good we needed to go somewhere that didn't entail much walking................. we went shopping.
Well we went to Oakchurch Farm Shop which is between Hereford and.... somewhere else that could be Bishop's Frome but also might not be.

tasting balsamic oils

the notice outside the tearoom

Miss Em dancing while Daddy takes pictures

waiting for tea - the men look desperate,
clutching their heads. It was pretty hot and humid.

As I have said before a day out begins with breakfast and for us that means Morrisons anywhere or Jo's Place on the A40 at Whitchurch between Monmouth and Ross. On Saturday we chose Jo's because Daughter and family had not been there before. They were entranced by the place. It used to be a Little Chef and then it was someone else and now it is Jo's. Mr M had the large breakfast I had the medium one with no beans - I really don't like beans at all - SiL also had the medium but he had everything Miss Em had a sausage and chips and Daughter had Kippers. She kept telling us for the rest of the day just how delicious they were.

We were very lucky when we reached Oakchurch because they had baskets of strawberries for a fiver! Really good sized baskets, you know the ones made of cardboard with a metal handle that used to be in the green grocers with mushrooms in? one of those with probably four or five pounds of strawberries in. Proper jam strawberries so they are a bit sharp to eat raw - that doesn't stop us though. I had hoped to make some sugar free jam with them but every recipe has either gelatin or something like that in it. Mr M finally said that he had quite given up on jam anyway and I was to make some "proper" jam for everyone, especially Miss Em who likes bread and jam for her tea after school

From there we dawdled towards Brecon, pausing at this really cute tearoom - we went there with the Bluefunnels earlier this month - and as we arrived in a shower of rain we hoped to sit and sup while the rain went away. Daughter told it to "Clear up now!" and it immediately stopped raining so we could sit outside in the sunshine and enjoy our cuppa and cake. They make beautiful cakes although their welshcakes had nutmeg in them so they were pseudo welshcakes.

Em liked that she could walk around the garden and photograph the pot animals that were hiding in the long grass. She found a pig and a rabbit and a dog on a bike and then had a dance in the little gazebo while her daddy took her picture.

We got home in time to herd the chickens into their run and then sit and snooze for the rest of the evening. Miss Em was pretty tired and went to bed early.

A fitting end to the summer holidays - we always think of the bank holiday weekend as the end of the holidays. The rest of the time is the build up to school. Making sure the uniform fits, buying shoes, checking shift rotas, starting the early bedtime routine again and reminding grandma that we have to do lots of scrapbooking before terms starts otherwise "before you can turn around Grandma it will be Journal Your Christmas again!"
Am I teaching her good stuff or what?