We visited Valerie and Norman for a couple of nights.  On the Tuesday we set off with hedge trimmer and chainsaw to trim their hedge.  First job on arrival was to consume an excellent soup lunch.  Then the hedge was attacked, lopping off a couple of feet.  

That evening we walked to The Cradock Arms.  We ordered and were soon eating.  But there was a pub quiz that night. What to do. We adjourned to the bar and entered the quiz, team was named SadGits.  We didn’t come last!  Walked back home, nursing our bruised egos.

Wednesday morning after a fry up, we headed out to Southwell and parked in some free parking by the leisure centre.  Our first stop was the Southwell Minster where we spent more than an hour looking around. Rosemary was hunting the carved mice on the furniture, think she found 9 of the 22.  There were numerous carving of small heads, one which looked very much like Donald Trump, which even had been mentioned in a church pamphlet.  The small carved heads stood in contrast to the rather squat fat pillar holding up the knave.

The chapter house had exquisitely carved leaves throughout.  These leaves have caused a few books to be written.  The chapter house also housed a picture exhibition themed on Adam and Even.  There was some quite interesting representations, Unfortunately the two we might have considered buying had been sold,

A quick walk down the road to The Hearty Goodfellow for lunch.  Small pub, with good beer and menu.  I ate a special of Moules Frites, We then walked to the Workhouse owned by the National Trust. Interestingly, there were some rooms that had been turned into bedsits for mothers with children which were still being used in the 70s, the fathers had to stay away.  Tea and then back to the Minster to visit the Great Hall in the Bishop’s Palace. 

On the way home we made a detour and stopped at the excellent pub called The Ale Classroom.  The Classroom is small, two rooms, but sells excellent beers, constantly changing, all served straight out of the cask. Rosemary, embarrassingly for me cos I had to buy it, wanted lager.

Back to V&N’s for a good pasta supper.  The next day we left mid morning to drove back in some large downpours. Thank you Google, you seemed to have missed predicting those.  Back at home there had been little rain and the garage was progressing.