Winter is coming

Not having a TV, I've not seen any of the production of Game of Thrones, though I've read most of the books. To be honest, I find them just too bloodthirsty for my taste, and Martin is too cavalier with the fate of his characters to keep me engaged. I gave up after part 1 of A Dance with Dragons. Anyway, at the rate he's going (or not going) it seems all too possible that he won't finish the saga.

But the motto of House Stark does come to mind at this time of year. I'm now routinely lighting the Squirrel first thing and today we changed the clothes over, putting the summer stuff away and getting the long sleeved shirts and heavy tops out.

Once it had stopped raining for a bit, we walked over to the Boardwalk, partly to get flyers from the shops to put in the lodge and partly to buy some meat. This wasn't wholly successful; most of the shops hadn't got flyers organised, and they were still sorting the butchery counter in the farm shop.

So we went back this afternoon, called into the bistro to get a menu from them and to get the meat. We've also booked a table in the bistro for my birthday on the 16th. It looks very good in there, very modern idiom, as you'd expect, but with a decent range of beers on tap. The menu is shortish and fairly pricy, without being ridiculous. Starters are around a fiver and mains about fifteen quid. I suspect that a night out for two won't leave much change from £50.

If it's well cooked and decent size portions it should do very well. I'll let you know in due course.

Meanwhile, The Butcher, The Baker had a reasonable range of meat. I got some stuffed pork loins and some shin to casserole for now. No need to get chicken from there whilst Elanor is still working in Ashbourne and buying it from the Moy Park factory shop; she's bringing some more fancy fillets tonight.

The weather has dried up a lot, but is still very windy and a cold wind at that. Here's hoping that it's a bit more clement over the Grand Opening weekend.

But as I say, winter is coming.