Anniversary

At least the weather was lovely 47 years ago when the Silver Vixen was silly enough to marry the the Gorse Fox. Today it should have emulated that day, but no. Today we are locked in the horned of Storm Ellen (the remains of Tropical Storm Kyle). The rain is almost horizontal as it it blasted across the the beach and into East Devon.

We had a hearty breakfast at the hotel and then decided that we needed to find an indoor venue for the morning. Several years ago Barney Rubble took the Gorse Fox to an impressive farm shop in the area. The Gorse Fox could not remember where, but looking back through old photos from that trip, he found a relevant photo that had been GPS tagged. A minute later the SatNav was programmed and we were on our way to Dart’s Fram. I seem to remember it as being a bit larger, but it was still impressive. We wandered round the Cotswold Outdoor shop first, but we didn’t buy anything. Then we went to the main entrance to the farm shop and joined the queue to go in. (They were managing the flow of people in order to maintain some social distancing). We found an interesting bottle of Coconut Rum so had to grab a bottle to try.

We headed back to Sidmouth then wandered down into town. The rain had let up, but not stopped. The wind, however, had really picked up. Once we left the Esplanade and headed into the lanes we were well sheltered. We started with a coffee at Costa, which because of the Government Eat Out to Help Out scheme only cost £2.75 for the two of us. We then wandered around the shops, stopping finally at Crew Clothing where we finally had a suitable credit card melt-down.

Back at the hotel it was time for afternoon tea as we sat perched in to prime spot of the lounge looking both out to sea and down across the town.

Time passed and the Silver Vixen wanted to shower before dinner so we returned to the room (showering in the Lounge is frowned upon). The Gorse Fox spent a quiet hour reading until she was ready and then we pottered down to the bar for a pre-dinner drink. Dinner, at our usual table, was excellent. The Silver Vixen had prawns to start and then plaice, the Gorse Fox had mackerel to start and then liver. For dessert we both had panna cotta which was served up on plates with “Happy Anniversary” scribed in dark chocolate. A nice gesture.