Halfway

The Gorse Fox took his first caffeine infusion soon after 7:00. He had slept well, but was now wide awake and raring to go. His coffee accompanied the ritual reading of the news aggregators and social media. Then, as the Silver Vixen appeared, he prepared for the cousins' call. The photographic backdrop this week was a view of the River Sid (taken last week). The call was the usual mix of laughter and random banter.

After the call, the Gorse Fox returned to his blog extract for 2017. This is slowly being knocked into shape. What a momentous year that was. The most memorable event was the birth of Ellie.  It seems incredible that it was almost 6 years ago that she first showed her smiling face, and has been a source of joy ever since.

We had planned to meet up with J&T for lunch. They had been in Christchurch for a few days, so the plan was to meet them about halfway, on the route home. The Gorse Fox had booked a table at "The Hiltonbury Farmhouse" at Chandlers Ford. This was a good spot for them to break their journey and was only a 50-minute drive for us.

It was a charming pub/restaurant just off Hursley Road at Chandlers Ford. It had a good menu and some very good write-ups on TripAdvisor. We arrived a few minutes early and had just ordered a coffee when J&T turned up. It turns out that the hotel at which they stayed in Christchurch was one the Gorse Fox has considered a few times for a short break away. We now have a recommendation to encourage us!

We ordered our food and, though the service was a little slow, the food was excellent. The slowness didn't trouble us. We were likely to be chatting all afternoon. In fact, we were. It was well after 16:00 before we left but we had a good run home, arriving in time to feed Jasper and settle in for a quiet evening.