Alain stayed with us until last Thursday, when he travelled to London to spend an evening with Steven and Ian spending the days before then with Andree and then evenings with us. Naturally he joined in the dog walking to the pub on Tuesday night. I asked Andy, the landlord, whether he had any spare beermats for Alain to take back to Canada – Alain collected some from Cornwall for his basement, which, apparently, becomes a local pub in winter, for friends and neighbours in Sioux Lookout. Andy came up trumps, presenting Alain with a large bag of beermats, a couple of Everards (our local brewer) bar mats, and an Everards Tiger t-shirt. Alain was very impressed with the freebies, the dog walking company, and the beer – especially since one of the casks of real ale, on a rack in readiness for a forthcoming British Beer and Food Festival at the pub was ready for drawing, and we were able to enjoy pints of Hobgoblin straight from the cask. The rather fuzzy image below was taken with my phone after at least the first pint…
Chantal has been poorly with a chest infection, but on Friday evening we did manage to get down to the pub, albeit briefly, to sample the food and (in my case) ales at the aforementioned Beer and Food Festival.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
