Queen’s Wood Cafe – Photo by Faye Cooke

Dear Readers, today I went for a walk in Queen’s and Highgate Woods, and what a pleasure it was to be negotiating steep hills, slippery tree roots, muddy patches and all manner of other obstacles with a little more confidence every day! It was a little warmer today (Monday), and the woods were full of dogs in jumpers, in particular a pair of Airedales who looked very elegant. But the main purpose of the walk was to catch up with my god daughter, who I haven’t seen since I broke my leg, so there was lots to talk about. And where better to have a coffee and a piece of lemon polenta cake than in the Queen’s Wood Café? It always reminds me of a little hobbit-y house tucked away in the woods, and therein lies a tale. In the summer, someone did a TikTok/Instagram post about the café, and it went viral. This has always been a quiet place, beloved by locals as a place to stop off after a dog walk. Alas, suddenly there were queues out of the wood and along the road, and the place was full of folk taking photos of their food and generally being rather higher energy than everyone was used to. Plus the poor staff, used to a café where service proceeded at a gentle pace, were now run off their feet from opening time to closing time, seven days a week.

The organic garden behind the Queen’s Wood Cafe (Photo credit Faye Cooke)

Still, now it’s winter, and I suspect that lots of people have moved on to the next ‘new thing’. There is the usual collection of people with dogs on the porch outside, there are seats for everyone, and the lemon polenta cake is absolutely delicious. Plus the woods are rather fine too, so well worth a visit.

A fine use for old boots (Photo by Faye Cooke)

Meanwhile, back on the County Roads there seems to be some confusion about when exactly the council are going to pick up the Christmas trees. Apparently they were meant to be collected on either Saturday 11th or Saturday 18th January, but clearly they weren’t picked up on the 11th. Sometimes there’s a random midweek Christmas tree pick up, so people are obviously loathe to take their trees in and miss the collection. On the other hand, the trees do form something of a trip hazard and make it more difficult for wheelchairs and prams. The narrow side streets of East Finchley were never meant for wheelie bins/Christmas trees it seems.

Christmas trees waiting patiently on Huntingdon Road

What I’m having trouble finding out is what happens to all of those (presumably chipped) Christmas trees. Do they go to municipal parks and gardens as mulch, I wonder? That’s an awful lot of woodchip!