Tag: herts

Scarecrow Festival, Flamstead 2012

It’s official, the English are eccentric.  Today we went to the Scarecrow Festival in Flamstead, Herts.  Apparently, it’s been going for over 10 years and was started to generate funds for the upkeep of the Village Church and the Herts Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre.

At least 70 locals took part, hoping for the most votes at the end of the day.  We’d printed out a map beforehand but found ourselves just roaming the streets on the look out for these rather unique home-made anomalies dotted around the town.  Our favourites were the 3 Little Pigs, The Hungry Caterpillar and the Guy on the Throne.  However, we forgot to vote in the end.

All in all it was a great day out, albeit a bit hot!

Is this a British thing?

Child-friendly pubs? Do they exist in the UK

One thing we really lack locally is truly child-friendly pubs.  We have pubs that tolerate children but none that really go beyond offering a children’s menu and many don’t even do that.

It’s not that we want to take our daughter to the pub and get ‘fall down’ drunk but on a sunny day it would be great to go and enjoy a pub garden with other families and have a couple of drinks whilst the children play.  A swing, slide or climbing frame wouldn’t go amiss.

Years ago, prior to kids I was in Slovenia and vividly remember going to a restaurant early evening and sitting on the patio.  I noticed many families having dinner together, drinking responsibly but they had a fantastic play area for the children.  Everyone was happy!  Is this a cultural difference?  Why don’t we do this more in the UK?

A couple of months ago on a trip to Shropshire, we stopped at a pub that was advertised on my Good Pub Guide App that was supposedly child-friendly.  When we arrived, we quickly worked out that children were not allowed in the main part of the pub, which looked fantastic, open fires, beamed ceilings, etc. Unfortunately we were relegated to the scabby conservatory and felt like second rate citizens.  What I also found interesting is that dogs were allowed in the pub but children were not.  Not all pubs need to be child friendly, as not all people like kids, but please don’t advertise them as child-friendly if they’re not.

The closest pub to us that is truly child-friendly is Moor Mill in Park Street which is about 5 miles away.  We went last week when it was really hot.  There’s a pond where you can feed the ducks, a smallish playground, which could use a bit of an upgrade, the children’s menu is quite extensive but I did like that they had a special menu for even younger children and it being an Old Watermill the building in itself was interesting.

Do bear in mind it is a Beefeater, so if you’re a foodie it may not be for you but we found the menu extensive, the prices were reasonable, and the service was outstanding, but this may be due to the fact they knew that we were reviewing the restaurant.  Overall, we thought it was okay but most importantly our daughter was happy, which meant we were happy.  However, when writing this review I did come across a few negative reviews so please do make sure you do your homework.

Disclosure:  Our meals were compliments of Beef Eater Grill

 

 

 

 

Heaven is a Cupcake!

Over 10 years ago we had a very drunken conversation in the pub about starting some sort of club.  We threw around the idea of a wine club but in the end we decided to start a book club, which is actually a wine club in disguise and have been going strong ever since.

We meet the first Thursday of every month. Whoever is hosting puts on the food, chooses the next book and the rest of us bring wine.   There is either 10 or 11 of us, I can never remember, woman from all walks of life: dentists, doctors, optometrists, teachers, PR, engineers and lecturers.

Over the years we’ve been through marriages, children, divorces and death, all the normal things that life throws at us.  We’ve experienced every emotion from laughing to crying.  I look forward to it every month and consider these women to be some of my closest friends.

I think the secret to our success is that we don’t take it too seriously; we don’t present the book or have formal questions or ratings.  If we like the book we talk about it a lot, if we don’t, we say it was shit and move on to gossip. I can’t remember the last time I finished a book.

This week we had a special treat.  Lucy from www.heavenisacupcake.net popped around with these gorgeous cupcakes just for us.  They went down a treat and no one noticed that I hadn’t read the book.  Look closely at the detail, she’s even written The Blind Assassin on one of the hand-rolled books.  We were all truly impressed and they tasted divine.

If you have a special occasion coming up and live in Herts do give her a dingle and tell her I sent you.

And if you ever want to start a book club, I’d highly recommend it and I’m more than happy to help.

 

 

 

What is Wellie Wanging?

We just returned from a spot of Tree planting and Wellie Wanging in Heartwood Forest, Sandridge, Herts.  It was a great day albeit freezing cold.  It was a bit of a trek to the wood but we managed it.  We only planted a handful of trees and wish we did a bit more but if thousands of people plant only a handful that still means thousands of trees planted.  Many hands make small work and all that.

The goal for the day was 11,000 trees.  To date they’ve planted 80, 000 with a final goal of 600,000.  It’s a really exciting project by the Woodland Trust you can read more about it here.

In addition, to planting trees they were attempting to break a Guinness World Record for Welly Wanging.  The current world record for men is 63.98m and woman is 40.87

For those of you unfamiliar with Wellie Wanging, it’s a sport that originated in the UK, where participants hurl a Wellington Boot as far as they can.  The record they were trying to set today wasn’t for distance thrown but the number of people who participated.  I truly sucked, wellies are so unpredictable.  I thought it was going to be easy.  I lined up, gave it a good hurl but unfortunately, it went straight up and came straight back down…only a measly 1.4m for me.  I think Madame beat me as well.

Here’s Madame’s Attempt

Hubby….

And the president of the Woodland Trust.  Do you recognize him?  Yes, it’s Clive Anderson from ‘Who’s line is it anyway’ and ‘Have I got News for you’.  I hope he doesn’t mind that I took the video as I honestly had no idea who it was till later.

We look forward to the next planting session but hopefully in the spring when it’s a bit warmer.