The Real Food Cafe Exeter

Well here I am sitting upstairs looking at a lovely slice of orange and poppyseed cake and sipping real leaf just like mother used to make and looking very busy tapping away at my phone.
The place is hummily busy (a writers group?). It's basking in early spring sunshine. The decor is fizzy green side walls, wooden venetian blinds, zingy red/orange lampshades. Plenty of space between the tables and free wifi!
It was recommended to me and I'm happy to recommend it to you - as long as you can manage the stairs up from the shop on the ground floor.
I'll try to add a photo now but that may be too much technology!

The Woodland Cafe, Yurtcamp Devon, Liverton

Well, today is a special day for me: 30 years ago today I watched my father die. It's a milestone, like the year that meant I'd lived longer without him than with him. How to mark and celebrate this time and his memory? Tea and cake, of course - our afternoons out usually ended with tea. But where to go? An old haunt? Or a new venue? New venue won out when I spotted a business card for the Woodland Café in the launderette - you just never know when inspiration will strike, do you? So off I drove via Forches Cross to Gorse Blossom Farm and thence to the café. It was early - 9.30am - and I had the place to myself. I ordered tea and a slice of tiffin and sat outside to enjoy the relative quiet, the trees, birdsong and the inquisitive squirrel hunting for crumbs. And I munched and reminisced until The Time + 30 years had passed and it seemed as though a new phase had begun. With the café lady's permission, I explored the site. None of the yurts appeared to be taken at the time but I could imagine the atmosphere especially in the evening when the fire pits were lit and dusk had set in. There were woodland walks and adventure playgrounds for the children. Overall verdict? Standard cup of tea, stickily sweet wedge of tiffin. They do main meals, so it might make an interesting lunch venue. You won't be passing their door, so it will have to be a special trip - but why not? On a lovely summer day, it's good to be outside - explore the public footpaths nearby - just be. But make the most of every moment. Here's to the next 30 years.

Old Walls Vineyard, Bishopsteignton, Devon

This is the tearoom that's got me blogging again! Sadly my computer is having a moment and I can't show you the gorgeous sunny photos of the delicious coffee cake and the thirst-quenching cup of tea. But to be honest, with the spectacular view over Devon coombes, green fields, thatch, swallow swooping overhead and the tiniest sea peep in the background they could serve sawdust. On a glorious day like today no one would care, the views and the general rural tranquility would be enough. And on the sunny hillside behind the cafe, the Devon vintage is beginning to ripen. Tiny pea-sized grapes will fill out and soon be ready for the locals to tread them barefoot into wine (I bet they don't do it like that these days). Oh I wish I could show you the pictures! Soon, soon! In the meantime, while the sun shines, seek the place out and enjoy.

The Milkmaid, Exeter

There's only one Milkmaid. Place of happy childhood memories, queueing up the stairs for a seat in the restaurant with my mother and father.
It's different now, well a bit. I sat downstairs and enjoyed coffee and shortbread mid-Christmas shopping. The coffee machine looked all hi-tech, but the staff are still friendly and the place was bright and clean.
I popped upstairs to use the 'facilities' and cast a nostalgic eye over the empty restaurant tables neatly laid for tomorrow's customers. The layout was still the same though the decor has changed.
Times change, but good food served in a good atmosphere will never go out of style.

Reet Petite Diner, Queen Street, South Shields

I wish, I really wish I had taken pictures of this one! Then I discovered a link to a Shields Gazette article with rather nice pics attached http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/guitarist-opens-a-rock-n-roll-cafe-1-5504365#comments-area. I hope it opens. It was one of those days. You know, the kind of day when you move your birthday cards and discover a tenner with an exhortation to go and eat cake. And then you wander off to B&M and on the way you spot an icecream parlour and you think to yourself: 'I don't remember that, has that always been there?' And on the way back from B&M you remember the tenner and you think 'well I could have an icecream instead!' Ever had a day like that? I did today. So in I went, disturbing a no doubt well-earned coffee break, and ordered an icecream sundae and sat and was transported back in time. It was the red bench seating that did it. It was so reminiscent of a cafe I used to visit with my father when I was a child back in the 60s. It was so cosy to lean on the table and listen as the juke box played sounds of the era. So nostalgic when the icecream arrived to hear in my mind a soft and gentle geordie voice saying to the eight year old me 'Now take your time, don't rush.' Yes Dad, if you could come back to Shields this would suit you fine. But enough of this reminiscence! The icecream was fab! Well worth lingering over and well worth going back for more. Go soon, because once word gets out about this little gem you'll have to join a queue.

Macmillan Coffee morning

As you will know, in this blog names are changed to protect the guilty. It would be impossible to do that for this piece as too many guilty parties are involved. So, suffice it to say that I found myself in a house in South Shields with present and former work colleagues and people I had never met before and we all drank coffee and ate delicious cake to raise money for Macmillan Cancer research charity. The lady of the house bakes a mean coffee and walnut cake, let me tell you. The chocolate cake, scones and well, everything else looked great too. And afterwards, oh joy! A nosy parker's delight! We were offered a tour of the house. It was gorgeous. Not only does she bake, she decorates and dusts as well. Thank goodness for people who are generous with their time and talents for a good cause. And who are welcoming and hospitable too. May your efforts be rewarded and may a British Bake-off soggy bottom be far from you.

The Plant Cafe, Cathedral Green, Exeter

Looking back nostalgically over last week spent in Devon, Exeter comes top of the sighs league.  I love the city because I was born there and because of happy family memories and special places.  That said, it is always nice to find somewhere new, and when my relative and I were looking for a place to grab a quick coffee we noticed The Plant Cafe tucked into a little corner.

We sat outside and enjoyed views of the wonderful cathedral.  I munched a slice of raspberry and beetroot cake and sipped a chai latte. M chewed on a buzz bar (plenty of healthy things) and drank coffee.  We were both pleased with our choice.

Right:  on to the pen picture.  Small, historic-looking building in a quiet area of the Green.  Tables outside - ideal for this weather.  Inside it's cosy and crowded -  a mix of locals and visitors.  The food is wholesome - possibly organic, possibly vegetarian (how vague!) - and you could certainly try something a little different here.  It's also a bit of a community hub by the looks of the huge noticeboard advertising all manner of events and services locally.  Again, I didn't examine in detail but it would be a good place to start if you wanted to get to know what's on in the city.

Yes, The Plant Cafe has atmosphere.  Exeter was once castigated as a clone town.  Hmmm.  Cafes like this give the lie to that.