Lunch at the Daneway, near Sapperton

Helena drew the curtains this morning and I heard her exclaim pleasurably that there was a dusting of snow outside. I took a snap for the record from my study window, which I've added as an 'Extra photo'. 

We set off at midday to go to the Daneway pub, near Sapperton, which Helena wanted to revisit to rather belatedly celebrate her recent birthday. The snow was beginning to thin and finally melted by the end of the afternoon. 

I have visited this pub at various times since first coming to this area in 1975. Then it was still a very rural local, off the beaten track, beside the dilapidated Thames and Severn canal and close to the western entrance of its famous canal tunnel forming the watershed, as it cut through and underneath the Cotswold hills.

There is a wonderful nature reserve called Daneway Banks directly behind the pub and the new owners asked if they could use one of my pictures of the rare large blue butterfly which has been re-established on the Banks. They promote the nature reserve and it was good to see a printed leaflet about it using one of my pictures, as well as it being on their website.

Helena had a lunch here recently with a group of friends who'd all walked along the towpath from Chalford and returned via the hilltops. She got a meal voucher which meant that we could have a free starter if we ordered a main course for lunch. She recommended having the baked camembert, which was wonderful, as well as a ploughman's lunch with homemade pork pie, cheese and pickles. I've blipped the two dishes as they were presented to us. 

We are both still feeling totally stuffed many hours later, as we sit in front of the gently glowing coal fire and about to watch 'Darling', directed by John Schlesinger in 1965, starring Julie Christie and Dirk Bogarde. Bomble is warming himself right in front of the hearth and it has been a lovely relaxing day for us all.

ps
I've also added a quick snap of the pub as we left, with fine drizzle having replaced the snowflakes. The pub has been modernised quite recently and the managers now live there with a young family and are making it a very good place to visit for locals, walkers, canal visitors and those interested in the the nature reserve. I think it was originally built to house workmen building the canal in the 1790s. When I first visited the pub there were just two rooms with four barrels of Wadworths 6X bitter on stools from which pints were hand drawn in front of you. It is a bit different now with the new kitchen and the food. I do miss the simplicity of its former incarnation.