Warminster

Goodness!  It's ages since I put anything on the blog!!  And it's not even as though there was nothing to say.  All sorts of interesting things have been happening around us.  We went to Bishops' House last Saturday morning, expecting to have no visitors at all (the Olympics were still on, there were things happening in and around Sheffield, all sorts of things to entice people away from coming to visit us) and had loads of them, including a surprising number of foreign visitors. I've been quite busy at work. The Builder has been quite busy up on the allotment and and and about.  Loads of things to blog about.  And (apparently) no time to do it!!

This weekend we were off to Warminster to visit Barb in her new apartment. She's moved pretty much right into the centre of town, a three minute walk from the cafe she sometimes helps out in. Her little flat is only small but it's remarkably light and has a lovely, tiny courtyard and is plenty big enough for one person.  I said to her that I thought it might be a bit small for two, but on reflection I think that two people who liked each other probably could manage in there. Wouldn't do for two sworn enemies though!!!

Anyway. We went down quite early on Saturday morning, leaving at 9:30 after the Wingerworth library had opened (I had reserved the new Hairy Bikers book - Hairy Dieters, although I have to say that if I invited you around to dinner and fed you food from the book you almost certainly wouldn't accuse me of putting you on a diet. The recipes look delicious!).  The Swan in Stoford has recently re-opened with new landlords so we decided to drop by and suss them out for lunch.  I would have to give them 10/10 for their hospitality (they worked out very quickly that I was @nethergreen on twitter and came and made themselves known to me). We were also very impressed with the choice of ales and wines they had on offer, so 10/10 on the drinks front too. They seemed to be quite busy but it would be hard for me to tell if they had loads of locals in celebrating a sudden burst of summer, or whether they were picking up passing trade from the road outside.

A quick visit to the Wilton Garden Centre (where we randomly ran into The Builder's brother who was also mooching around the Garden Centre) and then off to Warminster to wile away the afternoon and evening with wine and plentiful good food.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday so we all got up early (Barb's apartment is, you will recall, very light!!) and had toast for breakfast and then went out to explore Warminster.  Both Barb and The Builder are very familiar with the town centre but I am not. It is true that we have been several times to visit Barb, but she used to live further out of town. It is true we came for Greg's birthday party. But that was at night and you couldn't see anything. So we ambled off for a stroll around the shops and then down to the Pleasure Gardens.  Now in my mind a pleasure garden is either where you have roller coasters and roundabouts and ferris wheels, or it is a place for naked bathing.  However in this Pleasure Garden there are no fair ground rides, nor are there any naked men (or women).  There is a boating lake, however, which we strolled around. And there are some rather nice gardens. And lots of happy dogs running about.  So that was all good.

Then we went to Salisbury to gather in Gwen, back to Warminster to capture Greg and then on to Upton Lovell, 10 minutes out of town, for a truly delightful lunch at the Prince Leopold. Then Barb and Greg headed back to Warminster and we took Gwen home and then headed back to Tupton up the Fosse Way which is a lovely drive up through central England which we haven't done for years. It is true that it is best done when it is sunny, when you are not in any hurry and when the daylight is likely to hold into the middle of the evening. But that is no reason for not having used that route for what must be a couple of years.  Must Do Better!

Warminster Pleasure Garden.  Click on the heron to reach the rest of the album