The last cherries?

Last Thursday, another day of recovery, saw a gentle stroll around the Screwfix circuit in the morning, taking in the Fruit Machine at the market on the way. A stall which is not terribly reliable and which has big queues on Saturday's, but which sometimes serves well.

On this occasion he was offering English plums and English cherries. The plums were dear, but were very good, perhaps the best of the year. Properly wet inside without being overripe or soggy, a trick which neither M&S nor Waitrose had managed. The cherries looked splendid, shiny and firm. Probably the last of the season, I was told. Sadly, while they had good texture, they did not have much taste. Perhaps being late in the season they had not had enough sun to develop flavour and sweetness. Eatable, but not great.

Topped up with a spot more of Costcutter's fine Fleurie against the festivities of the weekend to come.

Then taking in the closure of D's coffee shop next door, after a run of three years. A place which one might have thought we would have made more use of, but in the event we used it just the once. Perfectly satisfactory tea cake and tea, but for one reason or another not repeated. One story was that the killer blow was a hike in business rates, which I believe are geared to what a business ought to be making, rather than to what it is actually making. Another was that it was the seasonal dip in business over the summer. 

After lunch and an afternoon snooze, another turn around town, this time to inspect the refurbished Wetherspoon's, reopened during our absence in Devon, in company with the rollator.

As far as this last was concerned, Wetherspoon had done very well. A ramp to get into the place and another ramp to get up to bar level. There were steps inside, but they could be avoided. While the refurbishment turned out to be more of a redecoration, a refresh. The layout seemed much the same, but there was a new carpet and a new colour scheme on the walls. It all looked very well.

Rather to my surprise the place was full inside. All sorts of people, young, old, male and female. Lots of young staff rushing about. To the point where it seemed best to partially fold the rollator in order to move around. All good fun, but a bit busy for a quiet drink, so I think I settled for just the one.

One day I will investigate what it takes to order from my table. I suspect connecting my telephone to my bank, which I don't really want to do.

PS 1: some leaf shots taken on the way to Wetherspoon's. The point of which will be revealed in due course. The usual small prize for anyone who can guess what it is beforehand.

PS 2: I was amused by this one from reference 2. I wonder where I can get some from? I associate to the chap in TB, a little older than me, who might have been one and who was apt to react rather violently if the word was used anywhere near him, with or without knowledge of his parentage.

PS 3: perhaps I won't bother. Bing Shopping tells me that I might have to pay £300 a bottle or more. Too rich for me, even for my birthday.

PS 4: gmaps did not seem to offer routes, but Ordnance Survey does. A very easy to use feature which enables one to create, edit and save routes. The down side is that I now know that the Screwfix circuit which I have been using of late is a modest 4.5km (aka 2.8 miles). I did do two of them today, but it is still not that inspiring. Nor is the time taken, too embarrassing to reveal here. Tomorrow, maybe, I will investigate the Horton clockwise and the Ewell Village anti-clockwise. Hopefully a bit nearer a respectable 10km each.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/08/plums.html. Crane over Wetherspoon's.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maison_Louis_Jadot.

Reference 3: https://www.louisjadot.com/.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=jadot. Just the one mention of the firm here, dating from 2019.

Reference 5: https://explore.osmaps.com/. An entry point for online maps at Ordnance Survey