Well, we all made it this week – yay – so off to a good start. The Barn is a garden centre and cafe located on Turkey Cock Lane in Stanway (and yes, we all had a predictably juvenile reaction to the name). How could we not pay a visit? Sister X was particularly keen – always had my suspicions about that one! It’s actually a really nice garden centre with loads of lovely ‘things’ for sale. You know the type of ‘things’ – all that beautiful vintage-look stuff that you know would never look quite right unless you owned a stunning Georgian house or Victorian cottage with a quaint country garden. The rustic crates and shabby chic milk churns certainly wouldn’t have the same wow factor in a 60’s semi!
Anyway, the tea room is big with lots of tables but still feels quite cosy. I had no trouble locating a high chair and there was space for the buggy, although I did have to tuck it out of the way by the door or there wouldn’t have been room for people to walk past. The toilets are also very nice and clean with decent baby-change facilities.
The cakes looked amazing on the counter under big glass kloshes – I went for chocolate, Sister Y had lemon and Sister X had ginger again (she’s not pregnant, really, she just likes ginger cake!). Sister Y and I both agreed that there was way too much butter icing on ours – nice cake but too sickly. Sister X said hers was more gingery than The Woodlands offering last week but not as sticky so she couldn’t quite decide between the two. £5.75 for tea and cake so on the expensive side but I did get 3 (small) cups out of the pot. I think we will be heading back there at some point. In fact, Sister Y already has been – she took Husband Y in an attempt to convince him that they did actually need lots of lovely vintage-looking tat for their garden (don’t think he came up for it though … ).
The Sisterhood of the Long Boobs 