Bob and I are currently at our week-long housesit in the village of West Farndon in Northamptonshire in the East Midlands. (We have been calling this our Banbury housesit as that is the closest bigger town, but our house is actually about 11 miles northeast.). We spent a lovely afternoon and evening, including a great homemade meal with the homeowners on Friday evening. They are now off skiing in Austria with friends while we are caring for their lovely old home (formerly a mill house) and their two golden retrievers — Hebe and Stella.
Hebe (the name of a type of plant as well as the Greek goddess of youth) is the grandmother of Stella. Hebe has doggy Parkinson’s, so needs some assistance getting through the stiles on the nearby footpaths but other than that loves her walks (and meals) as much as Stella. They are both very sweet natured and quite use to walking in areas with sheep (common here along the footpaths).
The closest town for shopping is Woodford Halse which is an easy 20 minute walk. We walked the dogs there via the Jurassic Way walking route which runs very close to their property. This route runs the length of Northamptonshire. It has nothing to do with dinosaurs but is named for the Jurassic limestone escarpments that helped to create the old estuaries that the route follows.
From there we walked towards another village, Eydon (pronounced Eden), to the Harley Equestrian Country Lifestyle and Cafe that had been recommended as a good place for lunch and cute gifts by our homeowners. We arrived there at about 1:30, and the cafe was busy with people having lunch or tea and cake. We had a yummy lunch and perused the shop.
Peckish Travels 
