“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” — Izaak Walton
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” – JRR Tolkein
“He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.” – JRR Tolkein
Thanks for joining us on our blogging travels.
The seeds for this were sown just over a year ago while driving from Bradford-on-Avon to visit Avebury and the West Kennet Long Barrow, all in Wiltshire in the UK.
On the way up Cherhill we spotted an old petrol station that had been converted into a cafe named Divine.
We had to find out if the cafe lived up to it’s name. It did.
We both choose a raspberry and lemon roulade that had just the right balance of sweet and sharp. The meringue was light and not overly sweet as well. It was refreshing rather than sickly and laying heavily in the tum.
If I remember aright, the tea was Assam, chosen from a wide range of available teas.
It was while we were oohing and ahhing over the delicious cake, still laughing about a funny incident with a police car.
We were both surprised when we passed all white police car with just the words and badge on. The car lacked the chequerboard pattern of blue and fluorescent yellow that we’re so familiar with where we live in South Wales, UK.
I knew there was a name for that pattern and that it was a type of cake. I was absolutely convinced that it began with M. It was driving us a little nuts as we drove through the roads wending their way through the Wiltshire plains. I spotted a police station and was quite tempted to stop and ask them to put us out of our misery.
Suddenly, as we were talking about something else, it came to me.
‘Battenburg! That’s what the pattern on the side of police cars is called,’ said I.
Liz quipped, ‘ Oh yes, that cake that famously begins with an M!’
‘Yes, it does actually,’ I quickly responded, ‘Mmmmmmbattenburg!’
‘Good save,’ was Liz’s response as we collapsed into a fit of giggles.
As we laughed about that, and the fact that there was no Battenburg cake on the menu at Divine Cafe, thank goodness, I made a throwaway quip about us creating a blog to record our little travels.
Our travels that seem always to involve quick visits to interesting places with our wry and silly senses of humour. Visits that always seem to involve cake. Or ice cream. Or cake and ice cream.
It’s taken a year for the seed that was planted again to sprout in the form of this blog.
Neither of us quite know how the blog will develop and grow. What we hope is that you will enjoy sharing our journeys with us.
Curious Stops and Tea Shops 