Spring migrants
Mar. 17th, 2026 07:04 pmIt must be the season when visitors head north. Next week D. will be with us, just for a break and catching up - with us and other friends inthe north. And we have just had a flying visit from
helenraven, on her way even further north to a family celebration.
We took her to lunch at our favourite wine bar: a little nervously, because what makes it our favourite is not that the food and the wine are superlative - both are good but not stunning.
helenraven is a person of taste and discernment, and I was afraid they might not meet her standards. But being a person of taste and discernment, she enjoyed the ambiance, the friendly service, the good food, the opportunity to have fun with wine - and besides, we had so much talking to do that
durham_rambler had to prod me and ask, wasn't I going to take a picture?
All three of us opted for one of the flights of wine on offer: mine, as you see, were the four reds,
helenraven had the 'family flight' from the business's own vineyard, and that lightweight
durham_rambler chose a platter of nibbles with only three glasses of wine. That's an impresive eleven glasses on the table (there was some duplication, but not much).
We came home via Collected Books, where I was good, and just bought some cards, and via the North Road, which is looking terribly down at heel, and not just because of the Bus Station, where building work is still in progress (not that it does seem to progress) and where the usual handful of police cards were in attendance. And spent the rest of the day and much of the morning after, catching up - with breaks for reading when all this socialising got too much for us.
We took her to lunch at our favourite wine bar: a little nervously, because what makes it our favourite is not that the food and the wine are superlative - both are good but not stunning.
All three of us opted for one of the flights of wine on offer: mine, as you see, were the four reds,
We came home via Collected Books, where I was good, and just bought some cards, and via the North Road, which is looking terribly down at heel, and not just because of the Bus Station, where building work is still in progress (not that it does seem to progress) and where the usual handful of police cards were in attendance. And spent the rest of the day and much of the morning after, catching up - with breaks for reading when all this socialising got too much for us.
