Afternoon Tea & Riverwalk

I met up with a friend this afternoon for a delayed birthday outing. We had postponed it since I was away and then have been unwell with covid.

We went to Sonning-on-Thames, met by the church, and walked along the river for a little while in the sunshine. It was another beautiful day! I love the gorgeous mandarin duck - I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one of these along here. I’m not sure what kind of butterfly that is, but I’m glad it stayed still just long enough for me to take a picture.

I thought the flowers were tall snowdrops but my friend said they were Loddon Lillies, named after the Loddon river that flows through Hampshire and Berkshire (and right through the village where I live!). There were a few boats moored up along the river but this was the only one that went past us as we walked. When we started our walk they were moored up and eating their lunch before continuing their journey towards Reading.

We finished our short walk back in the village and my friend treated me to afternoon tea at the almost-new tea-room in the village. I had bought a takeaway coffee and cake from there during one of our lockdowns. It’s a new village shop and cafe business that opened during the pandemic - couldn’t have been easy! I think they’re popular so hopefully they’ll survive.

There was a tea-room here years ago called The Tea Cosy and I used to love going there and taking American visitors. Sadly it closed down and an Indian restaurant occupied the premises for many years. I am so happy that a village store and tea-room are back! It’s called The Village Hamper. The ‘motivational quote’ is outside - if I visited here more often I’d make sure I took a picture of each week’s contribution. I blipped a previous one here.

We sat outside on the small back patio and shared a pot of tea and each had a piece of cake. I had apple cinnamon and my friend had lemon & elderflower. We enjoyed watching the sweet dog at the next table and she was very happy when the waitress brought her a ‘homemade’ dog biscuit.

It was a nice outing, but I’m wiped now!