CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE. REPEAT IF REQUIRED.
Elizabeth brought Mum over for lunch and dinner on this her actual birthday. Jackie laid on an especially super spinach soup to accompany some of yesterday’s surplus sandwiches.
Afterwards Elizabeth drove us all to Holmsley Old Station Tea Rooms, so we could introduce our mother to remnants of the pre-Beeching era that she remembers so well.
The Hordle Lane housing development is coming on apace. The first row of buildings now has its roofs;
and other rows are rapidly rising.
From the old station car park, with a signal arm behind it,
and the Booking Office in front,
we passed the To The Trains sign to enter the tea rooms.
In ‘Holmsley Revisited’ I wrote of Dr Beeching’s decimation of our railways system. This newspaper framed in the foyer was a London Evening News & Star issue from 27th March 1963. This publishing amalgamation represents two of the publications featured in ‘Starnoozenstanna’.
Beneath this page are stacked two leather suitcases of the period.
The Tea Rooms meringue confections are sheer indulgence. We thought we might be able to share two between the four of us. They were placed on the table within Mum’s range. She carefully moved her water glass aside,
so she could examine the offerings more carefully. “I’ll have that one first. Then I’ll have that one”, she exclaimed. With the joke over, she made quite good progress with her half of one.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty cottage pie, carrots and runner beans. Elizabeth and I drank Parra Alta malbec 2016, while the others were happy with sparkling water.