Down on the Farm

On Thursday's Jed and I usually meet with some of the ladies for lunch at the church building. It's always such a nice way to get a little bit of extra fellowship time with anyone who happens to not be at work or school on a Thursday. We have about five to six ladies who come on a regular basis. Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day with no rain in sight, which is saying something but then that's another post. Still, one of the things Yorkshire living has taught us is never waste a sunny day. With that adage in mind one of the Ladies suggested we all go out for sandwiches and enjoy the sun. So we all piled into the two cars we had available and headed for "Charlotte's Ice Cream Parlor" (They do sandwiches and coffee as well). In total we had 4 ladies, a young mother with 2 small kids, me and Jed, and another lady who met us at the ice cream parlor.

When I say ice cream parlor it just doesn't fit with the American idea of and ice cream parlor so I will explain. Many of the working dairies in England have realized that selling there goods to supermarkets really puts a strain on them because of the prices they get. I'm sure there are many other solutions but this dairy farm found that by cutting out the middle man they could make and sell ice cream and turn a much better profit. Enter the ice cream parlor. Charlotte's now has a nice ice cream parlor with a gorgeous view of the surrounding village and the lush green fields (courtesy of all our local rain) and a play area outside for the kids. Sounds good doesn't it? It would be a wonderful place to go if the description stopped there but it doesn't... They have small pens lining the car park and the playground with all kinds of friendly animals including, goats, sheep, donkeys, geese, a rooster, and a hen house. As if that wasn't enough they even have a mini golf course. With all of this the place is perfect for kids and because you can see the animals and play on the play area for free it's definitely the place to be on a sunny day. Needless to say we had a wonderful time enjoying the sunshine and the views from the picnic tables, and you really can't get better ice cream than when you can count the cows it came from.