HOLIDAY SNAPS - It Rained & Rained & Rained

The rain was forecast to fall continuously all day, which it proceeded to do with a vengence. So we thought, keep ourselves relatively local, within easy access of shops and cafes, should we need to seek immediate shelter. So we went for breakfast in Helmsley, to The Feather Trail Cafe, which we'd discovered three years ago on our last visit. Their Veggie Breakfast was still as good as we remembered it. We wandered around dodging the occasional heavy shower, looking for and then finding a cafetiere in a charity shop. A cake to take home for afternoon tea etc. We will undoubtedly return, we always do.

North Yorkshire has very few National Trust properties, its mostly English Heritage. But we spotted Nunnington Hall on the drive to Helmsley. So on the way back we stopped off for a drink and a cake.The house itself is a smallish country manor house, it is quite a ramshackle affair and has an air of run down neglect. This house could never be referred to as grand or swish. Whether this is the Trust's deliberate decision, to leave it exactly as it was when they took it over, or that Nunnington comes very low down on the list for money being put into it, this I could not say.

But it was one place to shelter from the increasingly heavy downpours. Once we actually found where the Cafe was located, which due to poor signage, was indeed a task in itself. It was heaving, as Hubby pointed out, with all the white haired middle class retired couples currently on holiday having the exactly same idea. We ordered our drinks, and that ever so English notion of having a Scone of the Month - Bramley Apple Crumble Scone. Ensconced on a plate with two dinky glass pots, one containing apple sauce, the other custard. The scone had chunks of apple within it, and once all its accessories were slathered upon it, this was a taste sensation.  This proved to be the culinary highlight of our very wet first day. Excellent.

We returned to base, bought a Chinese takeaway from Pickering, watched the ever delightful Grand Budapest Hotel, and then to bed