Christmas Dinner at the Rhydspence

Last year we were at the Globe for the staff Christmas party, but this year none of us were that keen on the Christmas menu there.
The menu at the Rhydspence looked promising, though, so we hired the Booktown minibus taxi to take us all out there (apart from the staff member who lives in Clyro, who stuck to half a glass of white wine all night and drove herself home).
There was a big party in the restaurant, so we were put in the Welsh Bar, which is nice and cosy, with a real fire.
The food was very good indeed, and the drink flowed freely - I had salmon mousse for starters, and pork for my main course - I'd considered the pheasant, but I had pheasant at Kilverts with the Stitch and Bitch party. There were generous helpings of vegetables, and three different sorts of gravy!
There was a rather nice sticky pear pudding afterwards. The menu also included the traditional turkey and Christmas pudding options, and a butternut squash dish as the vegetarian option.
The pinot grigot was very nice, and they had a Hobsons beer on hand pump at the bar - Old Prickly Snuffly Hedge Grog (with a picture of a hedgehog on the pump clip). It's a fairly local beer, coming from a brewery in Cleobury Mortimer.
The Christmas crackers had something I've not seen for years - the plastic fish that curls up in your hand to indicate what sort of person you are (I got "Passionate"!).
The taxi was right on time both ways, and we had a bit of a magical mystery tour going back to Hay, as we had several people to drop off on the way. We crossed the toll bridge, which now works with a three digit code if you re-cross on the same day that you bought the original ticket. Mist swirled in patches near the river, as we took the back lanes back to Hay.