Wedding stuff, Wandlebury and Wimpole

[lnr]

Friday afternoon Mike and I took off, and went to chat with one of the team at Queens' about details for our Wedding: things like rough timings, and plans for numbers in the day and evening, a vague idea of what we might choose to eat, and knowing when they need to know final numbers and so on. It was useful. Then we went shopping, and bought walking socks for our summer holiday in the Pennines :) And went and chose and ordered wedding rings. It was a nice afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon Mike's parents arrived for the weekend. Taking advantage of the mild weather we went off for a tramp around Wandlebury: through the woods and down to the roman road, and round the ring ditch where we followed a kestrel from tree to tree for a short while. We went into town in the evening, and tried out the new Côte restaurant on Bridge Street - we weren't really sure what to expect, but were pleased to find a fairly classic French menu: I had steak tartare followed by moules frites, Mike had paté de fois gras and steak haché, whereas Evan and Gina both skipped the starters and went for coq au vin. Lovely light bottle of red to go with it and nice puddings. We'll definitely be back.

And today the weather has been even nicer, so we hopped in their car and headed over to Wimpole. I don't know what it is with parents and National Trust properties lately: the other week we went to Anglesey Abbey and found it packed with people come for the snowdrops: today it turns out Wimpole was having a bonus day with free entry for everyone, including to the home farm where they're in the middle of lambing. We had a lovely time, and Mike took loads of photos, which I'll post on Facebook as soon as it will let me upload them. And as well as some very cute farm animals (and some very tame sparrows) we also added a treecreeper and some jackdaws to the list of birds spotted so far this year. And we had a lovely walk up through the park past the lake (which you can't even see from the house) to the Gothic Folly on the hill. Lovely and warm in the sun, shirtsleeves weather! Home for a lovely late lunch, with the patio door open to let the sunshine (and the neighbour's cat) in. Fab. It's a shame they had to head off so soon for the drive home.

Now that's what I call a nice weekend.

Addendum: photos

Comments

[pm215]

Department of random coincidence: I was at Wimpole today too, although given the huge number of other people who were too, I'm not surprised we didn't ever see you :-)

(One of the NT people inside the house was very firm that it's *not* a folly because it has a usable room inside it...)

[lnr]

By that definition it wasn't built as one then, but it certainly is one now: big "danger keep out" signs on the fence round it.

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

I was at Wimpole on Saturday and saw a lamb being born.

[lnr]

Sounds like there's a lot of it going round! We didn't see any being born, but I did get to pet a pig, and have my hand licked by a calf.

[chris-jl.livejournal.com]

It seems we have similar tastes. I've been doing Wandlebury failrly solidly recently - got shots of the kestrels (cf flickr acc.) and green woodpeckers and a curious bird that spends most of its time on the ground in herds^H^H^H^H^flocks chewing cud. Loads of ladybirds out there and the frogs were croax-ing wonderfully. Also done Cote (damn where is that circumflex?) and Wimpole this last week as the MiL is round. Frankly surprised we havn't bumped into each other repeatedly.

[lnr]

Well, it seemed like everyone was at Wimpole this weekend, given how busy it was, so I'm not sure why I should be so surprised when it turns out to have been the case among my friends :) (ewx was there on Saturday too, and has a rather nice pic to prove it, and more visitors have been owning up over there too :)

You want ô for the circumflex :) Did you enjoy the food too?

I've heard to woodpeckers out pecking near our house, but not spotted them yet this year: saw green ones and greater spotted ones last year, but those don't count for my little book :)

[chris-jl.livejournal.com]

Ah, Côte - well, sort of - like the parsons egg. I'm not a fan of their pisaladière - it's not like the ones of my childhood. They seem to be aiming for a variant of some kind of flammenkuche. The rillettes are good - like the ones from Le Mans that I'm used to. The chicken dishes seem to be engineers chicken - they get a plain roast bit of chicken and add 'adjective sauce' to make 'adjective chicken' - eg the coq au vin is roast chicken with 'au vin' sauce - it isn't marinaded and steeped in it. The steak wasn't blue as I asked - merely rare.

Lets be honest - I grew up in France and I'm a spoiled little shit when it comes to food.

[lnr]

Interestingly Mike asked for his steak haché rare, and was told it didn't come any rarer than medium rare - it was still pink enough to be leaving a little puddle on the plate. So perhaps it depends on how much they think you really mean it :)

My only quibble was that I my moules frites didn't come *with* the mayo, though I was offered it separately, and that when it arrived it was plain mayo rather than garlic :) But then I didn't grow up in France, so am perhaps less discerning. I rather expect they aim for a more British palate too.

[chris-jl.livejournal.com]

I didn't grow up in France, so am perhaps less discerning

Heaven forfend anyone ever think so. I'm certain the English like excellent food and always know it when they see it - the growing up in France merely led to the 'spoiled shit' bit. I think also that euro-foodie people think the English are still a bit backward and patronize them with not rare/med rare meat and no garlic assuming it is too outré for them.

Similarly, when I ordered steak haché at Côte I was actually asked if I really knew what it was. One moment of later and I think they understood.

As an aside - when shall we 5 meet again - I loved our last walk and I'm champing at the bit to see you both again (and hoping feeling mutuality exists).