Life ain't no walk in the park

Actually, it was yesterday. It was when we got there and the effing battery gauge on my camera malfunctioned and went from full to empty in 30 seconds flat that it all went wrong. Luckily, his lordship was able to sally forth like Sir Walter Raleigh and save me with his posh android phone thingy which has a passable camera.

We enjoyed a stroll through the Eastcote nature reserve in far West London (you'd never guess you were in mid-suburbia) and I grumbled because there were loads of lovely things I wanted to photograph, and, good though the stand-in was it wasn't up to arty shots of leaves, lichens and other boring stuff I like to snap.

Finally, we popped to Eastcote House for a look around the pretty walled garden. This has nothing to do with it being en-route to the pub. Sadly, the manor house itself is little more than a glorified shed nowadays; intact on the outside but you can see the boarding behind the glass, and it's where they store the lawnmowers and grit. By modern standards it's little more than a big detached, but back in the day it would've been some place! Depressing, in a way, but at least it keeps it preserved. No photo either- a large van was parked outside obscuring the view. Our luck came back when we lifted the latch and sneaked into the secret garden...

Me, apparently bringing back the 'hobble' skirt from the early 20th century!

Playing with the camera apps!

And so, following a bracing walk, we adjourned to the pub. The Case Is Altered, Eastcote (it's an unusual name, but there's another up in Bushey! Strange). The name is apparently a corruption of the Spanish name for a brothel - the 'house of fun' if you will. Cheeky times in centuries gone by! Nowadays, the only women lowering the tone are me and my pals- it's a really nice local pub, giving the flavour of the local Inn in an Agatha Christie cricket-on-the-green village - but on the tube and 30 mins from central London. Fab.

They have the 'balance' here: sport is shown, but on a small unobtrusive screen in one area, excellent food is served, but it's not a 'gastro', there's olde-worlde charm with a large airy barn conversion for fans of modern decor. The range of drinks is good too- there are usually 4-5 ales on pump (Bombadier and Pride being the usuals- the guests yesterday were all Cornish, I tried a Cornish stout with coffee. Yum!). In the summer, there's a spacious beer garden with an excellent view of the cricket green and/or nature reserve.

Yum. Dehydration is a killer.

If you're in the area, I recommend this pub! It's also a good start for a crawl round Eastcote and Pinner. ;)