friday lunchtime

Friday lunchtime lasts up to four hours. G and I usually spend this time in a local pub that serves superb food at ridiculous prices and then we move on somewhere else for coffee. Today, though, we go further afield to the Woodman, which had been strongly recommended by MR. Had game pie. Good, but not as good as the Queen Vic.

Then onto Curtis Mill. You get here by taking a hidden turnoff at Passingford Bridge roundabout. Suddenly you are on a dirt road and in the middle of countryside. A mile along this road is Willow Cottage - a Hansel and Gretel cottage dating back to 1660 set in a garden of several acres. Dick Williams lives here and must be quite an old man, because he bought Willow Cottage in 1952. He is a dramatist and in the summer open-air productions take place in the natural amphitheatre by the cottage. A Mid-summer Nights Dream is the best to see.