enitharmon | Retail Therapy (Reply)

Just for the hell of it, I went to Lancaster today. Actually although I didn't really need to go there, there were things I could usefully do when there. Like stocking up on the excellent fair-trade Brazilian Bruzzi coffee beans form Atkinsons, that finest of all coffee shops anywhere (unless anybody can convince me otherwise.) Atkinsons is always worth the voyage anyway, but there's also Burt's for top-notch sausages and black pudding, and the wholefood shop, and the ice-cream from a local farm (raspberry swirl, yummy) sold from a stand in Penny Street. Oh, and I bought a couple of plantains from a very friendly black lady in the market. I'd given up hope of finding plantains, to which I am very partial, up here!

It was a gorgeous day for it - bright and sunny despite yet another forecast of rain - and maybe it was my brightening mood but I struck up an interesting conversation with a travel agent on the train out, and another with a splendid old lady on the bus from Barrow station home.

Oh, and I caught a fleeting but unmistakeable glimpse of an avocet on the marshes between Silverdale and Carnforth from the train.