AREN’T POT PLANTS GREAT

I’m writing this to the backdrop of Friday night karaoke in Middlesborough, so don’t expect much. “We don’t” says Russ.

Welsh Pub no. 5 was an award winner, aren’t they all. I calmed down by taking in the sights of Llandeilo. Some of them are worth seeing.

Wales really is stunning.

Gate to keep you in
Probably a bank, eh?
Gorgeous colours

The Salutation looks solid enough, and had plenty of mid afternoon custom.

And you can trust a pub where lads skive off work to play pool.

But no-one is drinking the cask, why would they. Even the Landlord is drinking Guinness.

I ignore the Doom and the Landlord and go for local Mantle, which was stella(r) in Carmarthen in 2017.

Here, it’s warm and dour. Happily, they’ve provided a lovely garden with plants that need watering.

Ooh, lovely, say the plants

A lively pub, as is the one called Yr Hen VIC over the road. Please, someone tell me they’ve had great beer here.

Just in case you think I’m being overly fussy, the Double Maxim in this Middlesbrough fun pub is an easy 3.5+, £2.10 before the forthcoming CAMRA/Stonegate discounts, and the Discovery will never grace the GBG.

It’s a cruel world.

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

21 thoughts on “AREN’T POT PLANTS GREAT”

  2. The Stonegate up the road from me in Tynemouth sells consistently decent cask – far better than the other ‘real ale’ pubs in the village but gets zero recognition from the Camraistas. 5 pumps but it’s busy enough all day every day thanks to half decent food. The only problem for me is that it’s got all of the character of a Spoons without the saving grace of cheap beer.

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    2. The beers in the central Stonegate in Mboro were £2.10, and better quality than the same beer in the Spoons roynd the corner.

      CAMRA members will be getting discount vouchers they can use in Stonegate as well as Spoons soon.

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      1. In my nearest Stonegate pub last evening my pint of the 2004 Champion Bitter of Britain was £2 but with a ‘BUY SIX PINTS GET THE 7TH FREE’ loyalty card it was effectively down to £1.71½. The forthcoming 50p CAMRA vouchers would get that down to £1.21½ except that I wouldn’t expect BOTH discounts on the same pint.

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    3. Stonegate sounds like the latest revelation about a Tory leadership contender.
      It’s just a pity Jacob Rees-Mogg isn’t standing.
      ” My tincture of Laudanum shame ” would be the headline.
      I thang you.

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      1. P P-T,
        We had Stonegate ten years ago several miles from me.
        Bill Cash, MP for Stone although he doesn’t live there, claimed more than £15,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses to pay his daughter rent for her London flat – even though he owned a home closer to Westminster. And he got away with it !
        “No more Cash for Bill” is what I keep hearing ahead of general elections but Stone is a safe Tory seat.

        Did Mrs P P-T enjoy her trip ?
        And was she glad to see you again ?

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      2. She did indeed.
        Not overly religious but she accompanied her ageing Mam on her pilgrimage around biblical hotspots.
        Beer-wise she said it was mainly Carlsberg and Tuborg at six quid a pop

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      3. I let the old girl have a lie-in this morning before she resumed control of the household and I drifted back down to bottom place behind the dog in the pecking order.
        I know my place.

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  3. ““We don’t” says Russ.”

    (peeks over his shoulder and pulls his tinfoil hat down a bit tighter)

    “Gate to keep you in”

    Oooh. Like the old East Berlin or the current North Korea?

    “Probably a bank, eh?”

    If this was England, you would’ve said ‘future micro’. 🙂

    “Gorgeous colours”

    Well duh. Look! The sun’s shining!

    “And you can trust a pub where lads skive off work to play pool.”

    They could be on their… *cough* break. 🙂

    “Happily, they’ve provided a lovely garden with plants that need watering.”

    And judging by that open area, that’s where all the spaces went in this paragraph?

    “Please, someone tell me they’ve had great beer here.”

    Good signage at the very least. 🙂

    “It’s a cruel world.”

    You’re just learning this now at your age?

    Cheers

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  4. By my reckoning, your classic pump-to-plant pot activities are keeping at least one marginal industrial unit brewery from going under. Bravo!

    I’ve this morning signed the pledge to pour one half of warm cask directly into the toilet in every pub I visit this year. Ask not what cask can do for you… etc. etc.

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  5. Looking at the interior photos can make one realise how difficult finding a plasterer can be in such rural communities.

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      1. All too often nowadays “the story behind that floor” is lost under a jazzy carpet.

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