Betwixt

 Call it what you will but this week between Christmas and New Year serves to befuddle.

What day is it?  What do we need to eat from the fridge? Surely mincepies and panettone are appropriate breakfast food, and so on.

Having made the decision not to seek out pubs on Christmas Day or Boxing Day (we had good fridge beer courtesy of Basement and Arbor), by Saturday we fancied some cask beer.

I'd seen that the Seven Stars was under new management (?ownership, supervision, staff - not sure) and that it was probably time for a revisit.

It's a pleasant stroll and we got a jolly welcome when we came inside and sat next to the wood burner. We had a couple of good pints of 3.8% pale beer (Goffs for him, something else for me).  Beautifully kept and in great condition, they may have been quite trad in "pale" terms but it was great.

More noticeable was the absence of smell from the gents which used to be one of the pub's defining features.  Definitely an improvement!

There wasn't really a second beer we were gagging for - but we did share a really nice low strength stout.

We needed to pick up mushrooms on the way back but thought we'd also look at the Kings Head - not sure if it would be empty or heaving. It appeared to be the latter and neither of us were in the mood for fighting our way past the cluster around the bar to see whether the snug could accommodate us.  So we headed back for our single can of Yakima Valley instead.

Yesterday, thankfully, Martha's was open as usual so we took games, caught up with B behind the bar and revelled in the pleasant number of people in the space (more than usual for a Sunday). 

I think it's Monday today and so I've had a go at doing some work - mind you, by the end of the week I'll be all confused again.  We've both found it a bit of a challenge gettng our heads back into it.

Still - nearly time for beer...I wonder where...