Morton is one of those villages you could easily bypass. Apart from the desirable homes - the kind I can only ever dream of being able to afford - it boasts a church, a post box and an old-fashioned red telephone box equipped with a defibrillator.
There's no shops but as I discovered, after a detour off the main road to Southwell, there's an idyllic-looking olde world pub called the Full Moon Inn. It's a picturesque red-brick building, with Georgian-style windows, creepers on the wall and a pantile-roofed porch.
A sign outside says "step inside my friends and take a cup, it is not dark for the moon is up, sit down, refresh and pay your way, then you will call another day." It seems inviting enough - especially for a woman on her own. When I was younger I would never go into a pub to meet friends, let alone sit down and eat by myself but thankfully times have changed.
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The weather is just warm enough for other customers to be sitting outside in the garden at the front but knowing that the weather can go from a brilliant blue sky to flash foods in the space of ten minutes, I venture inside.
Despite its age (one of the locals told me it's over a century old) the pub has a contemporary look with a mix of pheasant wallpaper and magnolia walls, oak beams with fairy lights and colourful upholstery. There's no one in the restaurant so I sit at a small table, decorated with a silk hydrangea bloom in a vase, in the bar. A group of locals nearby are chatting over a pot of tea about how Robert de Niro has recently fathered his seventh child - at the age of 79.
The menu, presented on a wooden clipboard, has a decent range of pub classics - all the ones you'd imagine, such as fish and chips, steak and ale pie, sausages and mash, and ham, egg and chips. Burgers in brioche buns and baguettes also feature and I was going to have a fish finger one until I checked out the 'Dine for Less' menu with two course for £18.95 or three for £22.95.
At the bar I start to order the chicken schnitzel but as I speak the words, I change my mind and go for pan-fried salmon instead. While I'm waiting for the food, my pot of tea appear - a plentiful pot it is too meaning I'm going to be able to top my cup up several times. There's a proper milk jug too - I hate this god-forbidden trend of serving milk in tiny cups without spouts. Stop it please!
Within 20 minutes a colourful array of food is put before me, served on a nuclear-hot plate which remains warm until swallow the last morsel. The fish is nicely-cooked, coming away in delicate pink flakes. A creamy hollandaise sauce peps it up.
The medley of green vegetables described on the menu is a mix of French beans, tenderstem broccoli and mange tout (that instantly makes me think of Del Boy's famous phrase mange tout Rodney). All three tick the 'cooked just right' box - not too al dente but not limp either. Last but certainly not least is a generous serving of new potatoes, covered in minty, buttery loveliness.
With a choice of four desserts, I could have devoured any of them. But the chocolate delice, toffee pecan roulade and millionaire salted caramel chocolate tart would have to wait until another day. Today is the day for warm cherry Bakewell.
A thick layer of fluffy light frangipane and jam lay are encased in buttery, crumbly pastry (best not think about my cholesterol levels right now) and topped with a light dusting of icing sugar, a mix of berries and a chocolate matchstick. A punchy cherry compote complements it well as does the cherry ice cream - once I manage to cut into it. Perhaps the freezer setting needs turning down a notch as it was too hard to slice through with my spoon until it started to melt.
It's been a proper home-cooked meal - nothing over-complicated, just good British fare cooked well, for a reasonable price. I've enjoyed every mouthful and the service was equally praiseworthy. For anyone thinking of a trip out to a rural pub I'd certainly recommend it.
The full moon often has negative connotations - howling werewolves and madness - but this Full Moon certainly isn't on the wane.
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