Fanny's Farm Shop - a magical place

Another great day off. A good friend and neighbour suggested we visit Fanny's Farm Shop for our Wednesday walk today. I haven't visited for years and had forgotten what a magical place it is. A lovely place to visit with children and also an interesting place for visiting 'grown-up children'.

Today was one of those lovely cold but bright Autumn days in this part of Surrey - ideal for a stroll. We were chauffeured to our destination by a kindly husband so we only had to walk home after a scrumptious cream tea.

It's difficult to describe Fanny's Farm Shop. More than a tea shop, less than a garden centre - quite unique. The creator and owner Fanny Maiklem obviously has a great sense of humour and I would guess is a bit of a 'magpie' judging by the collection of miscellaneous country-related artifacts scattered throughout the farm. She is famous for her home-made marmalades, jams and chutneys but the home-baked cakes are also worth a mention and today's cream tea was absolutely delicious.

Once again, I had taken too many pictures to choose just a few so have put them together in a slide show. Perhaps you might be tempted to pay a visit yourself . . .

Quarant'Ore . . .

I'm very grateful to Dominic Mary of Libera me Domine not just for this super picture of the Quarant'Ore at The London Oratory but also for the encouragement to go along and take advantage of this great opportunity for prayer in such a beautiful church.

I'd been thinking I might use my day off to go up to Victoria and visit the Cathedral and nearby bookshops so his post just came at the right time for me.

I had a super day out. The weather has been so much kinder recently and it was great to walk around London without having to fight against a biting wind or driving rain.

I timed my outing just right. Setting off in my own time after the morning rush, I got to The Oratory in time for a good period of Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and then was able to move to one of the side chapels for Mass (Novus Ordo, Ad Orientem, for those of you who are interested in this sort of detail) before making my way back to Victoria and on home. Naturally, there were also coffee-stops and window-shopping to fit in along the way!

There are so many situations and people that I wanted to pray for, it was great to have this chance today. Needless to say, I included all my blogging friends in those prayers.

It's not too late to go along yourself - the Quarant'Ore finishes tomorrow with Benediction at 7pm. For more information have a look at the Oratory website.

Westminster Cathedral was looking quite magnificent in the afternoon sunshine and the piazza was relatively quiet so I couldn't resist taking a photo. Sorry, I'm not proficient enough to be able to fit all of the tower in the picture without standing in the middle of the road!

Shop 'til you drop . . .

A very rare occurrence in our family today - the Pater Familias and I had a day out together in the middle of the week . . . and even rarer - we went shopping together.

Of course being a woman, I quite often have a 'mooch' around the shops on my day off, but to do this with one's 'nearest and dearest' is not usually my preferred option. The PF shops likes a typical man and I'm sure most women readers will understand what I mean by this. But, over the years we've reached a compromise on the rare occasions when we shop together. In fact when I say 'shop together' what I really mean is; we travel to the shops together and leave together, and maybe meet at an agreed time for coffee or something to eat but otherwise we go our own sweet way. It works for us!

The PF had suggested an outing to the new Westfield Centre near Shepherd's Bush a while ago and as he'd had a meeting cancelled today, he 'nobly' postponed his other appointments so that he could drive us there (a few brownie points earned there, I think!

I'm not that keen on big shopping centres generally but as it was midweek it was relatively quiet and a pleasure to wander around. It's a great place for people-watching; there are plenty of coffee shops and I was impressed by the abundance of comfortable seating areas throughout the centre in the walkways - and free wi-fi. So you can imagine lots of 'well-heeled' youngsters (and not-so-youngsters) chatting with friends and playing with their iPhones. There were quite a few laptops in use in the coffee shops too, I noticed.

Here's the cocktail bar in 'The Village' - definitely the place to see and be seen in the centre, right in the middle of all the top-end designer shops - you name it, it was there - Gucci, Prada, Joseph, Louis Vuitton etc. etc.

I wouldn't want to do this too often, but it was quite fun living the high live for a few hours. Back to normal tomorrow and feet firmly on the ground.

"You type . . . she speaks" A bit of nonsense on my day off!

I just received this by email from my sister-in-law. It's great fun - just type in any text and the programme will generate the vocal. You can even change the voice just as you would on a Satnav. Follow the link here and have a few minutes' fun with the demonstration.

A 'Grand' Day Out . . .

I had a day off yesterday and had A 'Grand' Day Out (with apologies to Nick Park!)

The weather in this part of the world was not fantastic and it was a cold, windy and quite foggy day 'beside the seaside, beside the sea.' Nevertheless we had a great day. We took lunch in a rather 'Grand' hotel on the south coast, well-known for hosting certain conferences.

In the summer, the town is 'buzzing' but on a cold and blustery day like yesterday, only a few brave souls were to be seen 'strolling along the prom, prom, prom'.

How about this for a pudding? Panacotta with basil ice-cream - I know, but it was delicious.


In fact we were the only guests in the dining room for most of the time. Mid-week at the beginning of February is probably not 'high season', I would guess. The elegant bar/lounge area was quite busy with business men and women looking very professional, eyes glued to the screens of their laptops, and fingers flying across keyboards (free wi-fi - yay!). Maybe it was a bloggers conference!

The meal was delicious and the service excellent. Unlike poor Wallace and Grommit we had no need to go anywhere near as far as the moon to find plenty of delicious cheese!


And back home in time for tea as they say in all the best story books. Oh, it's good to live the good life now and again.

Just musing . . .

I often wonder when I have nothing in particular to blog about but haven't blogged for a day or two; is it better to say nothing or is it better to post something no matter how mundane, or inane even? Yes, I know that applies to most of my posts anyway.

Personally, I like to see new posts on the blogs I follow regularly, no matter how 'ordinary' the content. We don't all lead such exciting lives that every waking moment is earth-shatteringly newsworthy ( I don't think that I would want to either!) Also, I actually find the 'ordinary' quite interesting anyway.

So, as I can only act on how I feel about it, I decided to go ahead and blog today.

Yesterday, being Wednesday, was my day off and followed much the same pattern as most Wednesdays for me:

The day began with:


Mass at our local church - always a good way to begin the day. A bit like having a good breakfast - it really sets you up for the day ahead. I like to walk as the church is not far away and even in yesterday's showers was enjoyable. It also gives me time to prepare for Mass as I walk along - time and space to get into the right frame of mind.

This was followed by:


Coffee with friends -another important element in my day - excellent therapy and nourishment of a different sort.

Quite a bit of the afternoon was spent like this:

I don't think I looked quite as glamorous and I don't have one of these snazzy-looking steam-iron-thingummy-bobs but I spent a happy hour or two dashing away with my own rather worn smoothing iron.

Finally I settled myself in front of the TV for what promised to be a happy 90 minutes or so watching England v Andorra - and it was very enjoyable. It's always good to be on the winning side (who said, 'for a change'?)