A couple of weeks ago, I was clearly living in a state of denial, as I was adamant we weren’t going to head into another lockdown. We’d finished work on the Friday, absolutely battered by work, looking forward to a week off and were hugely excited about catching up with friends and going to a restaurant!
As the weekend progressed and after repeated BBC Breaking News alerts, I could see that our hope of getting away for a couple of days was getting smaller and smaller by the hour. Once Boris had addressed the nation, we knew that we had a small window to get away, so we headed straight over to Airbnb and booked a few days away in a beautiful 18th century cottage in Chillington, Devon.
After a three hour drive with me singing to the Handsome One and Bella (‘oooohhhhh, I do like to be beside the seasiiiidddeeeee, ohhhh I dooooo like to beeeeee beside the seeeeeeeeaaaaa!), we arrived. I’m pretty sure it was meant to take a bit longer, so I’m guessing the Handsome One put his foot down a bit to get me to the seeeeaaa!
We arrived to a welcome basket filled with biscuits, crisps, champagne, teabags and coffee – everything you could ever need. So after a quick run around, admiring every room and a quick cuppa, we got back into the car again to head to the…. seeeeaaaaaaaaaa! And Slapton Sands gave us the perfect welcome.
It was blustery, cold and smelt absolutely incredible. I’ve been craving to go to the beach for so long, truthfully, I was hoping to go somewhere that I could swim and feel the sand between my toes, but this was just as good, as we could bring our little sidekick with us. (I know she doesn’t look it, but she is very happy!).
We were at the beach for about an hour, trying to run in the wet sand and running in and out of the sea. Too be honest, there was no ‘we’. It was me running around and Bella chasing me, whilst the Handsome One watched in amusement and took pictures!
As the sun went down, we strolled back to the car, excited to get back to our gorgeous cottage, relax and then walk 30 seconds to get to the pub.
We’d booked to go to The Bear & Blacksmith in Chillington, and whilst we could see it was close to the cottage, we didn’t realise quite how close! By the time you’ve walked through the gate, onto the road and back up onto the path, you’re pretty much there. My ideal location of a pub. We started with beautiful, fresh mussels in a white wine sauce and they were absolutely divine.
I couldn’t resist the whole plaice, which came with scallops and king prawns – a fish lovers dream. The handsome one had the classic, fish and chips. Now, it might not look like much here, but it was absolutely perfect – crunchy batter, melt-in-your-mouth fish and an incredible homemade tartare.
Not one for being shell-fish, let me give you a close up of my main.
Even weeks later, I’m still dreaming of this gorgeous dish that was so full of incredible flavours and beautiful fish. The staff were lovely and the wine recommendations were spot on, so when they whisked our plates from under us, as we were groaning from being totally stuffed, they asked if we’d like to see the dessert menu – how could we resist? As you can see, we didn’t…
A chocolate soufflé with honeycomb ice cream and a raspberry sauce. Absolute perfection.
Luckily, we didn’t have far to waddle back home, to see Bella, who was excited to see us for about five minutes before she started snoring and we settled down in front of the fire to watch, Superbad.
As far as days go, this was a pretty perfect one.
A x
Abi in the Garden 