Lunch Date

As I've mentioned before, Mick's got quite a bit of holiday to take from work before the end of the month, so he took another day off on Monday and we had a lovely walk with Archie at Roundhay Park, one of the biggest city parks in Europe. It was a bright day but very blustery and the wind was bitter. There were a few people out walking their dogs but apart from them, the park was empty, in fact, I've never seen it so quiet.

We had our wedding reception at The Mansion in Roundhay Park back in 1990 and looking down from there you can see the small lake.

The wind was blowing the water which was being spurted out of the fountain and it was creating a rainbow to the side. I think you can just see it in this photo.

Quite a few big bands and artists have played at Roundhay Park, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2, Robbie Williams, and I went to see Michael Jackson there in 1988. Later this year Eleanor is going to see Ed Sheeran there, it will be the third time she's seen him in concert.

Archie had a good time, as usual. He played with a few dogs. His coat is so thick at the moment, he's ready for a good cut but it's got quite cold again just lately, I'm trying to hold off for a while.

The trees are still bare but I think it's only a matter of time until they spring into growth. The daffodils planted around this tree looked so pretty. I was surprised to see them still standing though in the gusty wind.

There's lots of interest in this park even during the winter months.

We headed down to the larger of the two lakes, this is Waterloo Lake . It's area covers 33 acres and it's 60 foot deep. It's a former quarry which was sunk and filled by soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars, hence its name.

There's always swans, ducks and geese on the lake but there were a couple of cormorants there too on Monday.

The Lakeside Cafe sits on the edge of the lake. During the day it offers breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea and by night it can be hired out for private functions. It's in a great spot with beautiful scenery.

We didn't patronise the cafe, instead we headed up the road to The White House, an Edwardian pub/restaurant. This used to be the home of entrepreneur James Holroyd Junior who owned the Burmantofts Pottery Company. We had our lunch here, and very nice it was too. Archie was a good boy, sitting really nicely underneath the table whilst we ate, in fact, the staff even commented on him being as 'quiet as a mouse'. It's very dog friendly so we often stop off here after a walk in Roundhay Park, they even have a bowl of gravy bones on the bar for dogs.

It's lovely having Mick at home during the week and going off and doing something we usually only do on a weekend. He's off the whole week next week so I'm hoping the weather improves and the wind drops so that we can have some more days out, though he's now been able to carry the remaining holiday over into April so he'll be having another week off just before Easter when Daniel and Jasmine are coming to stay and Eleanor will be home from university, I'm really looking forward to that.