A Special Lunch

On Friday, twelve of us gathered around a table, in our own private room, eating wonderful food served by attentive and friendly staff. Some of us knew each other of old, some had met more recently and some didn't know each other at all but were aware of each other from conversations with the mutual friend who had gathered us all together in a wonderful gesture to join with him in celebrating his special birthday. As I sat at the table where people were chatting and laughing and eating and relaxing I gazed towards the end of the room where the arched windows overlooked the old church and thought what a wonderful setting it was in which to celebrate such a special occasion.

Langar Country Hotel and Restaurant is in the village of Langar and close to Cropwell Bishop in the Vale of Belvoir. The house itself was built in 1837 to replace the original 18th century house, owned by Admiral Howe, which was destroyed by fire. You will see the setting of the house more clearly from the photo on the welcome page of the hotel's website (link above) I was standing as far back as I dare to take the photo above, one inch further backwards and I would have disappeared, probably rather inelegantly, into the Ha-Ha which was just behind me.

The church of St Andrew stands at the side of the house and the grounds too, are lovely.

These are statues of either ostrich or emu, not sure which.

Views across the fields from the car park area, the hotel grows and rears a lot of its own produce as you can see from their blog

A gorgeous laburnum tree.

Cottages on the lane around to the church which we visited after lunch.

The flowers displays were very pretty and natural with flowers from the kitchen garden and verges - using plants like aliums, cow parsley, aquilegias and ceanothus.

Inside the church was simple and plain with just the minimum of decoration.

The photo below is courtesy of Paul whose camera takes better close ups than mine - it is taken from one of the illustrations on the pulpit.

The churchyard was quiet and peaceful, a typical country churchyard - with cowslips growing in profusion amongst the grass.

The heavy rain of the morning had dissipated as we sat around the lunch table and the first few rays of sun glinted through the windows of the dining room, just right for a stroll around the grounds and the church afterwards.

The lunch was long, entertaining and satisfying. I passed on a starter and had a beautifully presented portion of stuffed aubergine with a hummus quenelle with a butter bean and chick pea coulis, follwed by a summer berry Eton mess with stawberries and blueberries - my first strawberry of the season. The most popular dishes amongst our party seemed to be crab cakes, steak and ale pie and spring lamb, just two others as well as me chosing the vegetarian option. It was all delicious.