WAS it a desire to buy plants that drew us to the Bothy, or did the Bothy just give us an excuse to acquire some bedding plants?

Either way, we made the most of the self-service facilities. There are three areas of seating - inside, in the conservatory or in the fresh air.

Despite a queue, service was brisk. Too brisk to enable more than a brief glance at the cold desserts in a display cabinet, let alone contemplate the hot ones.

The cherry pie, lemon meringue, Dutch apple, gateaux, roulade looked mouth-watering!

It was our turn to be served and a decision was required. Should it be French onion soup (£1.85), lasagne (£4.35), broccoli bake (£4.35), quiche with chips and salad, scampi or a giant Yorkshire pudding with beef casserole? Actually, we chose none of these.

Ann was given a numbered ticket that would eventually match a jacket potato with coronation chicken. When this reached us piping hot it was accompanied by lettuce, peppers, tomato, onion and cress. Ann's initial reaction was that she would be hard-pressed to eat such a large helping. But, bit-by-bit, everything disappeared. I took this to mean she was well satisfied.

Because I had eyed a particular pudding, I held back on a main course and ordered a bacon bap. This was adequate and arrived at the table sizzling. So far so good.

And now to the pudding. As a Scot, I believe I have a duty to sample any dishes that originate from north of the border. How then could I choose anything but Ecclefechan tart. This one was excellent. Ann eyed my plate and in the absence of an offer of a morsel ordered a portion herself. Her verdict matched mine.

Now if the quality of the plants we bought match the quality of our snack, we are in for a beautiful garden this summer.

Updated: 08:58 Saturday, May 25, 2002