Tuesday, April 03, 2007

BIRTHDAY TREAT
Aside

Yes I know my birthday is well and truly over but the girls have been busy so it was time for our GDO (girl’s day out) as my birthday treat ie they treat me to lunch and I buy the wine - but in that I was forestalled.

Margaret had planned it, which usually bodes well. We had been warned that the weather would be poor but although there was a September like mist there were patches of blue and we were in high spirits. Our coffee stop was Webber’s Post which overlooks mysterious combes. We had chocolate ginger with the coffee Margaret had packed and she reminded us there was a half an hour's walk past wooden sculptures if we fancied it. To my delight Joy and Jackie, who are presently having slight mobility problems, agreed to have a go. It is on the flat and has plenty of resting places. The walk was so lovely with all the bird song, and the sculptures were fascinating.

Then we had a drive through Dunster down the very windy road towards Dulverton. Margaret is used to the top road and felt sure we must have overshot the Dulverton turning as it took so long, but we kept reassuring her we hadn’t passed it and it would soon appear. Then, in spite of our warnings she overshot and turned rather violently left to our screams of protest. But the minx had been having us on and we were actually going north of the road to Dulverton to Pulhams Mill on the road to Wimbleball Lake. PM is one of the oldest sites on Exmoor (1086). A thousand years ago the mill was standing on the banks of the Pulham River and grinding locally grown wheat.

An English couple now run it as a show case for high quality local and British arts and crafts. The husband told us in 1979, just back from living in Australia, they were inspired to renovate the ruin of the mill. He showed us photographs of the gradual renovation which still continues. There is now a shop and café. The husband Ian Mawby makes superb quality furniture and Pauline Clements is an illustrator for the National Trust and places such as Chatsworth House and York Minster. She also paints bone china mugs and tea sets for the shop.

We could have had lunch in the garden by the stream but the slight chill kept us indoors. We were allowed to bring our own wine which Margaret provided in spite of my protests and I wasn’t allowed to contribute at all. I’m a little hazy about what we did after lunch. We certainly wandered round the shop and the garden, sat briefly in the sunshine and drove home.

21 comments:

Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

It sounds like a lovely day out with the gals. Wine, sunshine and old friends in the country. What could be nicer.

I have to get home - I'm homesick something rotten for British landscapes. By hook or by crook it'll be this year sometime. These photos are gorgeous, Pat. They're tugging at the old heart, so they are.

FOUR DINNERS said...

hazy? you drank a lot of the wine? proud of yer!

FOUR DINNERS said...

ps - me? resting?

Kim Ayres said...

I used to know Dulverton quite well. The gallery there sells a lot of my father's paintings, although he whacks a massive margin on them and pays my father a pittance, but that's a different rant. I do love Exmoor though.

Pat said...

4d:it doesn't make for clear thinking in the afternoon.

Kim: nest time I go to dulverton I'll look out for them. Or is Ayres a pseudonym?

kenju said...

Just how much wine did you drink, Pat??? LOL

Pat said...

Judy: we just had the one bottle but I seem to remember being given the surplus as it was my birthday!

Anonymous said...

You have a gift for description. Well told.

And who cares if your birthday is over, anyway?

Cheers.

Z said...

I love wine at lunchtime. Just occasionally, for a treat. I couldn't do it every day, it'd make me far too cheerful in the afternoons.

Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

No reply to me? :(

Pat said...

Sam sweerheart I'm talking to you in my head a lot of the time and with son# and grandchildren here am not functioning as normal. Not that they make work - Alice is cooking today and Tom tomorrow but I run around half doing jobs - get distracted - forget what I was doing and generally behave like a demented old dear! And I realised that today I would be taking more photos but I'm not trying to make you home sick. I get desperately nostalgic for our times in Yorkshire and Scotland although I love it here and if we moved I would miss it just as dsperately.xoxoxox

Randall: just to keep it going a while longer Son#is taking me out tomorrow to choose a birthday plant. Yippee!

Z: as we get older more of our roistering is done at lunchtime , especilly if it involves going out. I'd love to see you being 'too cheerful'!

Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

Wine at lunchtime is lovely but a big mistake for me. It makes me sleepy all afternoon and unable to care for my children. I think, at 4, they should be able to rustle up their own macaroni and cheese but they insist loudly that I feed them. They're quite right. If they insisted quietly I'd probably just nod right off and leave them to starve.

Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

Was there ever a lake with so lovely a name as Wimbleball Lake? It sounds like the lake the princess in The Frog Prince lost her golden ball.

Pat said...

Sam: I remember how vastly different life was when the kids were little. They sound very reasonable little girls and they get so clever. Alice who was a tiny scrap but a monment ago, has just done magical things to my sidebar. She does make the mistake of trying to explain to Grandma what she'd doing in th very faint hope that G will be able, one day to do it fo herself but G is no fool!

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I'm sure I left birthday wishes for you Pat, I hope you and Your TL enjoy many many more happy birthdays. Everyday should be enjoyed like a birthday too.

Pat said...

Sam: I can't think why we didn't go and look at it, we were so close, bur that's what wine at lunc time does - numbs your brain

Pat said...

Thanks GG. We certainly try to live that way.

Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

Oh bums! Did I leave birthday wishes? I think I did. If I didn't please know I wish you many more happy years with YTL and the good luck and good health to continue to get the most out of life, as you already do.

Love ya, Pat!

Pat said...

Sam: I'm sure everybody left birthday greetings - it was ages ago but thanks for the lovely good wishes. Oddly enough my sister forgot for the first time ever. Mind you she's older than me and thinks I am two years younger than I actually am and I see no good reason to put her right!

granny p said...

As usual you make me ache with longing for all these (my) heartland place. My remaining friend there tells me it's all looking delicious just now too and the weather's wonderful.

Pat said...

sorry grannyp. don't mean to cuase you and sam heartache.