We stayed for three days in a delightful B & B called The Old Cow Shed, literally converted from an old barn. We arrived on Monday evening and went out for a meal at a very nice local pub, The Three Horseshoes. There was a certain challenge in finding our way back along the country roads, but we managed it. We had stayed at The Cow Shed two years ago, when we last visited, and something must have remained in the memory.
The photos show the front of The Old Cow Shed and the garden with a view of local oasthouses.
The ProdigalD and her OH are working very hard on their bookselling business, so we didn’t see them till Saturday morning, when we arrived laden with late birthday presents for GD2, (though, of course, she had received just one at the correct time). She very quickly embarked on creating things with beads (I was told what to buy; I know nothing about these things.) Later that day, we all took GD2 to a birthday party near Malvern and the PD and OH entertained us to a cream tea, once we'd dropped her off. We had been looking for a tea place like that on our route to Herefordshire, on the A219 and A217, but instead we had found ourselves in a pub garden with large indelicate mugs of tea, and a rather gooey chocolate cake, which I ate on principle rather than with any enthusiasm. Anyway the scone and jam which I had at Malvern was exactly as required (M had cream with his.)
The weather held up enough for us all to take a long country walk on Sunday - which no doubt helped to get rid of the cream tea calories. It was rather grey a lot of the time though - this has been the most depressing summer - and in the late evenings at the B & B, I was reading Mark Haddon’s A Spot of Bother which I think is supposed to be funny, but which I also found rather sad, although very readable. I hope there’s a happy ending to it, because that and the weather made me feel rather depressed. However, Mark Haddon certainly has a knack of portraying the way people feel - a wonderful skill. Alas, I identified rather too often with the father going off the rails. 
We left the family on Sunday night; they had work to get on with on the following day, and drove up to the bustling market town of Ludlow to meet up with my friends. We got excellent directions to the car park from a couple of friendly locals, and had lunch and chat at The Feathers, a rather old fashioned hotel, with very modern plumbing, but alas, no smoked salmon sandwich, although it was on the menu.
Leaving there at 3.30 pm, M drove at a great pace home, with only one break, in about four hours. And now I’m exhausted. Doing nothing, including doing nothing but sitting in a car, is so tiring.
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