The Depaul Box Company

I have to confess to having a vested interest in this, but it's a brilliant idea for a very good cause:

Depaul UK is a youth homeless charity and they've just set up the Depaul Box Company 

They sell cardboard boxes to house movers. 

100% of the profits go to helping young homeless people get off the street and stay off the street.

If you're moving house and you live anywhere in the UK, you couldn't choose a better box to pack your stuff in...

http://depaulbox.co.uk/

The Hinds Head at Bray

Yesterday we treated ourselves to a Sunday afternoon at The Hinds Head - one of Heston Blumenthal's collection of restaurants in Bray.

Although it doesn't have as many Michelin Stars as the Fat Duck, it is as cosy as can be on a winter afternoon.  Dogs are more than welcome as long as they are well-behaved, like beef served medium rare, and their owners have been prescient enough to book a table downstairs.

As you'd expect the food is excellent.  You won't find anything of the molecular gastronomy that has made Bray famous, but you will find English and French classics done really, really well.  Chicken Liver Parfait was delicious, and the Oxtail and Kidney pudding went down brilliantly with triple-cooked chips and red cabbage.

After our main course we opted for the Quaking Pudding, a very entertaining dish for its wobbliness and unique ability to combine all of the good things about panna cotta and warm apple pie with lots of cinnamon.

The wine list provided some excellent choices and the Bloody Mary that we had on arrival was the real deal, made with proper horseradish, strips of celery and lots of fresh tomatoes.

We'll be back Mr Blumenthal, that's for certain

There were several good fires on the go downstairs and we could easily have wiled away the rest of the afternoon.  But sadly London was calling...

High Street, Bray, West Berkshire, SL6 2AB

http://www.hindsheadbray.com/

The Riding House Cafe

Another day in Soho, another fantastic discovery: The Riding House Cafe.

It's one of the few places that seems to transition from being a bustling restaurant and bar on a Friday night to a sedate breakfast spot on a Saturday morning with no trouble at all.  Usually there's the faint waft of Jack Daniels that hits the back of your throat or that sinking feeling that you are sitting in the remains of someone's Margarita from the night before.

Service is snappy and the breakfast options are excellent - a plethora of choice and great smoothies and juices to offset the Full & Proper Breakfast.  There are newspapers, magazines and the like, and it's the sort of place that you could hang around all day...

...and if you've got no place else to be, from 11.30 on a Saturday you can get stuck into the brunch menu, which is a mix of breakfast classics and imaginative, fullsome dishes like red deer casserole and lobster lasagne.

Stick around until the evening and the dinner menu kicks in -varied, with more excellent main courses and cute sharing plates to start you off.

Just one note of caution: the RHC requests that you call ahead if you're coming with a dog, particularly at busy times.  The official line is that if your dog fits in a bag you'll be allowed in, but when we went nobody seemed to object to the presence of a medium-sized lurcher and the staff were all lovely.

Pictures to follow shortly.

The Riding House Cafe, 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 7PQ

http://www.ridinghousecafe.co.uk/

The Anchor Inn at Lower Froyle

In order to alleviate the gloom of January we opted for a change of scene.  Sadly the Paws on the doors team doesn't have any holiday booked for some months, not to mention the necessary pet passports etc for a trip to Barbados or St Barts, so we headed for Hampshire instead.

Lower Froyle is hidden away south of the M3, just a few miles from the South Downs, the perfect distance for a weekend break from London.

The Anchor is on the outskirts of the village surrounded by farmland so you'll find nowhere better for peace and quiet.  

Dating back to the 16th Century, everything inside is proportioned for a time when people weren't quite so tall but we soon got used to ducking and weaving our way through the bar and none of the oak beams succeeded in landing the killer blow...

Several log fires keep the place cosy and there are plenty of comfortable spots for dogs around the bar.  We spent most of our time hiding the snug before retreating upstairs.

All of the bedrooms are named after English poets and writers.  We were given the Robert Graves, which was just perfect.  A big bed, a generous armchair, and a few rugs for extra warmth made for a very comfortable night.  The £10 supplement for dogs seemed proportionate and we were made to feel very welcome indeed.


The Anchor Inn, Lower Froyle, Hampshire, GU34 4NA.

http://www.anchorinnatlowerfroyle.co.uk/anchor-home

Bishops Park in the snow

Britain is in the grip of a dose of proper winter weather.  After the drizzling mediocrity of the first few weeks of the year, a gale has blown in from Siberia and the Paws on the doors team have been making the most of it.  

Today we set off for an afternoon haring around in Bishops Park.

No business like snow business

The snow kept on coming down, and there were lots of other dogs around to join in the fun.

"I'm going outside, I may be some time..."

Lots of people had made snowmen, and we found this snow bear as well.

Is it a Polar Bear?

After we'd exhausted ourselves we trotted off to out old favourite, Tinto Coffee for a hot drink and a few hours reading the papers in the warm.

Newspaper, coffee and bonies - a classic Sunday afternoon

With the cold weather set to stick around for a few days, we're planning on enjoying it as much as we can.

Tinto Coffee, 411 Fulham Palace Road, London SW6 6SX