Henry Street Garden Centre Arborfield - June 2013

View of part of the Garden Centre

Pouring tea with my very nice cherry and coconut cake in shot

They have a perfect combination of a really nice garden centre and a really good café at Henry Street!  Make it much easier to persuade the other half to come there with me on a Sunday afternoon as he can sit in the café while I browse the garden centre.  The café has lovely home made cake served in generous pieces and do nice coffees and (of course) tea.  They also do nice traditional meals (think ham and chips etc).

The café itself is much bigger than it used to be and offers an interesting view of the garden centre.  Another reason Henry Street is a favourite is it has a pet centre (usually with bunnies) and a nice selection of pet food/toys.  There is also a Maidenhead Aquatics which has a huge Koi pond and also a big tank busters tropical pond (stocked with rescued fish) as well as lots of smaller display tanks.

The garden centre is quite reasonably priced, always have plenty of friendly staff around to answer questions and have an amazing selection of roses. 

Morrisons Cafe Reading - June 2013

 

Seating in the Cafe

Beardy with appropriate t-shirt and teapot

 

My favourite Cappuccino

 

Morrisons Café is a real old favourite of ours.  Personally I think the coffee machine in there does the nicest Cappuccino around but I am certainly no purist :)

Its cheap and cheerful but they have a good range of drinks, cakes as well as 'proper' meals.  Plenty of seating and I like the little booths and the opportunity to people watch.  Also unlike some of the other supermarket cafes its nice and open (windows to the car park admittedly) so its usually light and airy.  Also the staff are usually friendly and the experience is usually quirky.

 

Whittington's Tea Barge moored at Reading Bridge - June 2013

Tea Barge moored by Reading Bridge

 

Inside the Tea Barge

The tea barge has been somewhere that we have wanted to go for weeks and taken a while to get round to it.  When we finally did go it was just like we had hoped it would be.

From the outside the barge looks like it will be small inside but it is quite tardis like!  Once inside there is a reasonably spaced range of tables and chairs with a fun collection of crockery (unusual tea pots and sugar/milk sets) and a cool view of the galley and also of the river lapping just below the window.  While we were inside and I was eating my (very nice) full English breakfast a couple of Canada Geese were staring at me through the window!!

 

For novelty value it gets a massive positive but also the food was very nice and the tea and coffee was presented well with nice quirky tea pot, plenty of milk and sugar and a good cappuccino - all from the tiny kitchen and tea area.

Really enjoyed it and will go back :)

Daisy's Cafe at The Herb Farm Sonning Common - June 2013

 

 

View of part of the gardens

 

Drinking Tea!

 

View of the gardens from other side

The Herb Farm is one of the loveliest garden centres I have ever found and I absolutely love going there.  The fact that they also have a really nice little café where they sell really good home made cakes and nice light meals (plus good tea and coffee) makes it even better.

Primarily as the name suggests its a garden centre specialising in herbs but it really is so much more than that.  The display garden is somewhere I have seen the most bumble bees in one place ever (last summer) as they have all kinds of beautiful flowering herbs in there such as thyme, lavender and unusual things like Welsh Onions.  In fact I like the display garden so much that I have all kinds of herbs bought from there growing in my own garden now and some of the plants (such as a really dark purple flowered comfrey plant) have cause a 'hive' of activity in my own garden!

Each time we go to the Herb Farm I try a different kind of their cake and I think the best ones to date are the ginger tea loaf (for me) and the Cheese scones (well savoury rather than cake I guess) for the other half.

If you can find it I would really recommend a visit.  There is also a little gift shop bit with some nice food and gardening gifts which are really usual too.

RHS Wisley - February 2013

Butterfly in the Glasshouse

Snowdrops and Black Grass

Outside next to the stunning bare branches

Now I apologise in advance as this may be the first of many RHS Wisley posts as when we went on this occasion (for the first time ever) to see the Butterflies in the Glasshouse exhibit I fell in love with the place and bought a season pass.

It was freezing outside when we first went at the end of February 2013 and we just went to see the butterflies which I had heard about on Classic FM.  The gardens were pretty bare of plants/flowers at the time but there was still some spectacular things to see.  Since then we have been multiple times to see the seasons change and every time there is something new and beautiful to see.

There are multiple cafes at Wisley and while I am a little bit disappointed in the range of food/cake available in the cafes (at least on the times we have been there) the actually facilities themselves are very good.  The saving grace for the other half is that they have Tregothnan tea which is a novelty at least and for me the setting is lovely whichever café you choose there are very friendly wild birds visiting the outside seating to collect up crumbs.

Aida Cafe Vienna - September 2012

 

Aida at night

View from the upstairs window at Aida

 

Inside Aida downstairs (with cake cabinet in view)

We went to Vienna in September last year for a few days (for my birthday) and it was just amazing.  For anyone who is looking for a relaxed city break I cannot recommend Vienna enough.  The city is beautiful and friendly and there is so much to see (sound like a holiday advert now!) and the best bit is you can walk for miles around the centre just looking at the sights and stopping at the myriad of cafes.

We mostly lived on going to the local bakery (as in a proper local bakery that the locals used and I got to use my horribly rusty German on the poor woman in the shop), eating the various street food (sausages, more sausages and bizarrely Chinese noodles) and of course going to the brilliant cafes with their mouth watering array of cakes.  My absolute favourite was Aida.

Some funny things to note about having tea and coffee in Vienna.  Tea never comes with the teabag in the water and coffee always comes with a small glass of iced water....

Romanes & Paterson Edinburgh - March 2012

 

View from the window of Romanes & Paterson

 

 

Loose leaf tea and ground coffee in R&P

For anyone who is familiar with Margaret Thornby's Tea and Tea Room Talk Magazine (as seen on Have I Got News for You!) you will know that the little guide you can get contains a directory of tea rooms all over the country who serve loose leaf tea.  I think we have only managed to go to one so far and it was this one.

The tea room itself is above a souvenir shop on Princes Street and I don't think we would have found it by accident!  It was quite nice - bit pretentious for my tastes but the other half was happy with his tea and a scone.  My cake was nice and the cafetiere made a nice change (with lots of milk which was great).  And of course the view was great!

Edinburgh Museum - March 2012

 

View from the roof of Edinburgh Museum

 

Inside the Museum in the central hall/atrium

Café in Edinburgh Museum

 

We went to Edinburgh back in March of last year and it was wonderful.  The weather was pretty fair with only a few rain showers and so we did all of the tourist things including going on the open topped buses and of course going to the Castle and the Museum.

 

I think all of the concessions at the museum and the castle etc at the time were all run by the same company which I think was called Benugo.  I particularly liked the café in the museum as it was so light and airy (you can see the huge hall it was in on the second photo).  Drinks were all fine (coffee a tiny bit strong for me but then that is me) and the carrot cake was particularly nice.  They did of course also have Iron Bru!

The Christmas Barn at Christmas Common - December 2012

Christmas Bar at Christmas Common

We randomly discovered the Christmas Barn when the lady who cuts my hair told me about it.  Now anyone who knows me will tell you that I love Christmas, as does the other half, in fact we love it so much we got married at Christmas time.

 

When we first when to the Christmas Barn which is in a real place in Berkshire called Christmas Common I actually felt SICK with excitement!!

 

As the name suggests its a huge barn that is given over to the sale of Christmas decorations (anything and everything you can imagine in every colour shape and size).  There are multiple trees decorated with a different theme and range of decorations so you can get an idea of how they look.

 

There is also a huge bit outside with local grown trees, wreaths and foliage.  This year I am going to try and get my tree from here as you can look at the trees shape before you buy it which is a really good idea - anyway I digress.

 

Inside in amongst all of the Christmas joy there is a small corner with a table and chairs and a drink vending machine.  You buy a little cartridge at the counter when you are buying you decorations and then use this in the machine and take advantage of the milk/sugar.  It is inspired having it as the barn itself is pretty cold and it was a brisk December day.  As you can see the little drink area is fully equipped with some magazines and also is a good vantage to people watch.

Eastbourne April 2011

Eastbourne - the Redoubt Fortress

Inside the Redoubt Guard Box

 

I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the place where the other half managed to get his cup of tea in Eastbourne.  We went there out of season in April 2011 with a couple of our friends who live in East Sussex and it was a sunny but freezing cold day and I was a little bit underwhelmed.  I had never been there before but other half and his friend used to go there when they were young so maybe that is the difference.

We found a place where you could hire pedal cars (literally a little lightweight car for up to four people that you cycle) and there was a small tea stand nearby just off the main promenade.

Looking back at the photos I am struck by how lovely and blue the sky is and how sunny it looks.  It really was freezing and the most places were not even open but the Redoubt is very striking!

Cardiff Cheese Festival 2010

The Welsh Brew Tea Van in the car park near Cardiff Castle

 

Cheese - another great divider in our house.  Other half like cheese as rank and smelly as he can find it and I don't like cheese...full stop.  Yet for a good number of years we have made the annual pilgrimage to Cardiff for the Cheese Festival inside Cardiff Castle.

 

 I have to admit that the other products available in the local produce tent (think local spirits and liqueurs, ice cream, preserves, chocolate, local meat, bread...) and the general ambiance of the location (inside the walls of Cardiff Castle) and the excellent hot food stands (hog roast, really good burgers etc), bar and the live music make it all worth while for me too!

 

One thing that has become a staple of the times we have been to the Cheese Festival is the positive path worn by the other half and his tea loving friend to the Welsh tea stand....usually there is the same lovely guy on the tea stand who must wonder why the hell we don't bring a flask!

Berkshire Agricultural Show 2009

Yorkshire Tea Stand - Berkshire Agricultural Show 2009

 

The Yorkshire Tea travelling stand was at Berkshire Show back in 2009.  We weren't tempted by the fine array of biscuits and cake (and TEA!) on offer but I seem to recall that the other half did manage to obtain a fine cup of tea from them (if memory serves it was boiling that day and I spent most of it searching out Diet Coke).

A brief history of all things Beardy

   

I think this says a lot about us that in the middle of our formal wedding photos (back in December 2010) my Mum managed to locate a cup of tea for my other half!

As indicated in the preamble this blog is only really intended as a record of the various places we go and have tea (coffee for me) as we have talked about putting this together for ages.  The reviews will be our opinion only and are not intended to offend as taste is such a subjective matter anyway.

I thought I would get warmed up with post of all of the photos I found readily that involved cups of tea being consumed and the places in which they were being enjoyed!