Sunday February 21st 2015 - The Sunday lunch that almost wasn't

Last Friday evening I got a call from my friend Janet asking if I fancied going out to lunch today. Now I see Janet every Thursday but it's absolutely ages since we went anywhere together so a Sunday lunch was an attractive proposition, and as I'd no other plans for the weekend I said yes. Her idea was that as we wouldn't be taking our dogs with us I would leave my van at her house and we would go in her car to a pub/restaurant which I'd never been to before, however things didn't quite work out like that.

As I was getting ready to go out Janet rang me to say that it was snowing heavily in her village, which is only three-and-a-half miles up the main road from me and surrounded by moorland, so if I didn't want to drive up there we could give the lunch a miss and go out another time. Looking out of my window I saw that it was raining here rather than snowing; I live in a semi-rural area on the edge of the moorland and even though there's only just over three miles between us the weather can often be vastly different, but having looked forward to my lunch I decided to drive up there anyway and we could decide what to do once I got there.

The first mile of road up the hill was okay but as I hit the fields and open moorland the wet turned to white and by the time I got to Janet's village it was indeed snowing quite heavily. The place she'd intended taking me to was ten miles away over the moors and as neither of us fancied driving over there in that weather we had a quick rethink, and rather than abandon the meal idea completely we decided to go to the village pub/restaurant, which is only about a hundred yards from her house and therefore walkable. This was another place I'd never been in and according to Janet, the last time she'd been in there a few years ago she hadn't been too impressed with either the place or the food, so we were taking a chance that it would be okay - and it was.

In fact it was more than okay. After a recent change of ownership the restaurant area had been refurbished and was light, bright and welcoming; the staff were very friendly, we got prompt service with a smile and the meal itself was lovely without being over-priced. With drinks and a couple of coffees we spent a very pleasant couple of hours in there and we were impressed enough to say we would go back another time. Also while we were in there the snow had turned to rain and by the time we left the white stuff covering the road and pavements was already turning to slush and disappearing.

Now as much as I hate snow I must admit that just sometimes it does have its uses. It may have messed up our plans and stopped us from going to where we originally intended, but because of it we discovered a nice place right on the doorstep which otherwise we probably would never have considered going to. So rather than being the Sunday lunch that almost wasn't, the snow actually turned it into a Sunday lunch which definitely was, and very enjoyable it was too.