A Few Days at Stone

Lovely Harry

The last few days we have stayed put in Stone. 

Thursday – Jane and Malcolm came mid morning to collect Harry.  It was lovely to see them and Harry was very pleased to see his mum and dad.  They came to the boat for a drink and a catch up and Jane's cousin Sue who lives in Stone called in as well while out walking her two lovely collies.  We packed up Harry's things, walked them to their car and waved goodbye, little Harry was looking out the back window as they drove away, we are going to miss him but will see them again soon.

Italian Garden

In the Gardens

The Trellis Walkway

Lovely Sculpture

Friday – We caught the bus to Trentham Gardens and Shopping Village.  We spent a good few hours wandering around the vast gardens with a lovely lake in the middle.  We had a picnic lunch sat in the Italian garden with views of the lake then had a boat trip from one end of the lake to the other which was really good as there are two islands in the middle of the lake and they take you close to them where we saw an Egret, Cormorants, Geese, Grebes and even a Black Swan.

There are Fairies at Trentham!

Cormorant on the Island

Trentham Shopping Village

There is a shopping village next to the gardens with wooden huts selling all sorts of things so we had a good wander around there and then walked across to the massive garden centre which seems to sell everything and then got the bus back to Stone.  We had a really good day at Trentham and it stayed dry, it is well worth a visit.

View from the Boat

Saturday – There is a food and drink festival in Stone this weekend and also a farmers market up in the town so we are going to visit both of those today.  It had been raining most of the night and was still raining when we set off up to the town.

Stone Farmers Market

The farmers market was really good with lots of stalls.  Powell’s Pork Pies from Whitchurch were there and we have been to the shop and watched them making the pies the old fashioned way with the dollies, so obviously we had to buy one of them, also the Scotch Egg lady was there and they are delicious so bought some of them as well.  We also bought some Indian curry from another stall and the curries are made by the stall holder and his family and the Chicken Dahl is his dad's own recipe and a few other things.  We took all our goodies back to the boat.

We then walked up to the Food Festival which was in the field close to the canal and although it was still raining, it was getting lighter and brighter.

There was lots of stalls selling all kinds of food to buy, from Mexican to hot dogs and a huge marquee where all the stalls selling produce were housed.  We had a good wander around there tasting gin from Ely, local cheeses and sausages, fudge, jams, other gins, salamis, prosecco, etc. We resisted the temptation to buy gin as we do have plenty, but we bought a few other things.

There was another food tent selling gourmet food so we had a look in there as well, then we went outside and headed to the gin tent where they were selling Old School gin from Tittensor, a nearby village for £5 for a double gin and tonic.  I had the Rhubarb gin and Kev had the Gingtin which was infused with grapefruit, mango and passion fruit and very nice they were too.  The rain had stopped and they sun was coming out, so we sat outside to drink them.

Me, Kev, Jane & Malcolm

Lovely Food

During the afternoon the sun came out and it dried up.  They had a stage where live music was playing and we watched a band called Stone Cold Sobberish who played hillbilly and Irish music, they were really good and great fun.  We had a few more looks around the marquees and we also watched a demonstration of Indian street food which we got to try and it was delicious.  Late afternoon, we left the show and headed back to the boat.  It was really good and we would definitely go again.  Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera so no pictures.

Jane's Dessert

My Dessert

In the evening, our friends Jane and Malcolm who have Harry the Jack Russell came and took us out for a meal to No. 26 restaurant which is in Aston marina.  We had a really lovely evening with great company and delicious food and more gin, I had Tanqueray Sevilla orange flavour and also JJ Whitley Elderflower gin and Jane had Tanqueray Rangpur, lime flavoured and Sipsmith gin.  No. 26 is a great place, it is very classy and the service was excellent, we would definitely recommend it and thanks so much to Jane and Malcolm for taking us, it was a brilliant evening.  They dropped us back at the boat and we said our goodbyes, we will meet up with them again soon over the Winter months.