They've been a long time coming, although they have kept me amused over the Winter!
In November, quite possibly against our better judgement, we set out on a holiday to the seaside. It had all been a bit random: we decided on the New Forest, and then searched a website for the least expensive letting that met or exceeded our minimum criteria and was avaialble at the time we chose.
Which is how we ended up in Milford-on-Sea near Lymington, on the Hampshire/Dorset border Coincidentally, I stayed there for a fortnight in 1980, but even having revisited, I don't actually have any memories, which is slightly worrying!
We didn't know at the time, but it is a little bit of a foodie area: as I write, their food week is just drawing to a close. It would have been tempting to return - if only for tonight's Milford's Three Tenors, including John Hudson who I've seen as Don José at ENO and the Albert Hall - but instead we will be visiting Dorset's Juassic Coast and coinciding with a foodweek (but at a time when local resident and much loved singer Billy "Traitor" Bragg is touring America), and I've signed up for more information about the Balham Food Festival
We found the Ladies Who Lunch in Hampshire an invaluable resource to supplement our 'Rough Guide' to the area, which will be re-used for the next holiday. We were staying almost directly opposite Verveine, one the LWL's top restaurants of 2010, and easy driving distance of the Crown in Everton. We were hugely impressed by the Zaika Indian in Milford, had a more than satisfactory pub meal at the Smugglers and had a lovely lunch at Egan's in Lymington. We were well aware of several other places we could have happily have tried in nearby Hordle, Barton and Mudeford.
I'm a city girl and have bad memories of restauranteurs in seaside resorts like Blackpool struggling with the word 'vegetarian', but I would recommend Rye and Milford as recent holiday destinations with exceptional food choices.
Our timing was slightly off, because the previous week had seen exceptionally mild November weather. On the other hand, it wasn't long after we returned home that Britain was hit by Snowmageddon. Still, we had some lovely coastal walks, and a glorious day in the New Forest.
I have finally finished loading 93 photos - which I hope represent some of the different aspects of our visit - into the album Hampshire
