pumpkinstrokemarrow

Last week, for once in a while, a visit to Leatherhead, an old Surrey town with a poor reputation in Epsom. Something to do with relocation of bombed out east enders after the second war, but that does not stop the place coming somewhere near the top of the heap of the price of house league.

Despite the remodelling of the town centre and the odd show off pile overlooking the Mole, it still retains something of the small country town about it, with little odd alleys containing little odd cottages. The church was also an odd looking place, but shut during the winter apart from divine service, so we did not get to see the inside. But on the outside one had a yew avenue, a large grave yard, a stone slab roofed lych gate, a view of the nave dormers (unusual feature in a church, but one which I have seen somewhere else in the not too distant past. Wilds of Surrey or wilds of Romney Marsh) and a very battered beech tree. Not clear what it had done to deserve being cut about in the way that it had.

Across the road there was an interesting relic of civic spirit in past times in the form of the Leatherhead Institute (http://www.leatherheadca.org.uk/), containing, inter alia, the first library that I have come across for ages that is neither serious nor public and carrying much the same sort of stuff as one might have found in a Boots library back in the 60's of the last century. Plenty of senior activity available: standing up keep fit, sitting down keep fit, bridge and all the rest of it.

Feeling economical, we thought to take lunch in the Wetherspoons, but having taken up seats changed our minds and went to the Italian next door (http://www.vecchia-trattoria.co.uk/), a comfortable place where the staff, unusually, made no attempt whatsoever to put on Italian accents, this despite the Italian village décor. Very reasonable - and reasonably priced - meal - and if the four quarters pizza was a touch spicy and salty for my taste, they did a very nice tiramisu, described as home made. I liked it for being on the dry side of damp and firm, which I prefer to the soggier versions. But you do need to strike a balance; there is some point in the sogginess, so the trick is not to take it too far.

PS: magpie activity in the back of the back garden this morning. Plenty of them but, for some reason, today they are not sitting in pairs. Clearly a singles event.