The Red Barn.

We finally got round to having the first of our meals out that were our Christmas presents to each other. We are simply not a family that goes out for meals. Initially due to the cost and now that there are only 2 of us not 5 we still prefer to cook a special meal at home or have a take away. (My favourite is a sandwich in the open air.) When we actually thought about it we could count the number of times we have eaten out together (not counting holidays or works outings) on the fingers of one hand. My colleagues do go out to eat but I don't think it is something we Brits do a lot. At least apart from young people. Perhaps it is the cost, locally a meal with a starter or a desert as well as drinks will probably cost £15+ per person or a fast food such as pizza or fried chicken would be £5+. Maybe I'm just old but when you multiply that by 5 for our family it seems to add up to a lot. What happens in your part of the world? How often do you eat out? What is your favourite cuisine? I'd love to hear your choices.

So it made it special for us to go for a walk and then have a meal at the Red Barn in Woolacombe. Not haute cuisine but a good selection and fair sized portions. Peter had roast beef with all the trimmings while I had a very good vegetable lasagna followed by a triple chocolate dessert with local ice cream. The meal came to £25 and we definitely do not need to eat again today. The only down point was when a couple of small children who were racing around the place like dervishes, managed to trip Peter up and he fell on his wrist, not good. Luckily he doesn't seem to have done any damage.

The Red Barn is a laid back surf themed place with great views over the beach. I can imagine that it gets very crowded in the holiday season.

This was our view as we ate our meal. Look, we even have palm trees.

Before our meal we went for a stroll along the beach. The tide was just turning and we were able to walk on the sand after jumping over the many fast flowing streams of rain water that were flowing down off the hills. We also picked up a few shells and I have started drilling holes and experimenting with different ways of combining the shells with beads to make some beach jewellery.

At home things were very different. We had more hail in the night and the ice was thicker on the pond. A couple more hail showers in the afternoon kept me indoors where I did some mending (sewing) in the kitchen. No severe weather predicted for us in the week but I'll keep an eye on the predicted temp each night so that we don't get trapped by black ice when we should be going to work.