Tebay services

The Minx has been away, this weekend, staying in a shepherd's hut, somewhere between Penrith and Keswick, with a couple of friends. They went home yesterday but the Minx stayed on for the Sunday night and last night, after dropping off Dan and Abi, I went up to join her.

It really was in the middle of nowhere, with no signal, and even though I had some fairly detailed instructions of how to get there, I was still rather* relieved to make out the Minx's car waiting at the side of the road: she had driven out to meet me.

We had a lovely evening although my vague notion that the kids might enjoy it was confounded by just how dark it was when we made our way from the kitchen/dining hut to the actual shepherd's hut to sleep. In the morning, it was lovely, though, if a little (not somewhat) drizzly. After a hearty breakfast we made our way south, stopping at Tebay services on the way. 

If you ever find yourself on that northern stretch of the M6 and feel that you might like a coffee or a wee or both, then I recommend this as a place to stop. It's family owned - meaning you don't get some combination of fast food joint, high street coffee shop, M&S/Waitrose and a WHSmith - and the setting is beautiful.

*I can't say 'somewhat' anymore; it would sound like the results of a survey of my evening. Were you 1. Pleased to see the Minx 2. Somewhat pleased to see the Minx... and so on.