An English Country Cottage Garden Party

What better way is there to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee than with a tea party?

The location for this celebration was a delightful country cottage.




The gardens are beautiful and the views are are rather special, with a dovecote just yards away.

Andy, of Belleau Cottage Blog has created a very English garden, with drifts of lupins, delphiniums, clouds of forget-me-nots and swathes of flowers I can't name.

It is my favourite kind of garden.  Everything is soft, with gentle transitions, plenty of colour, beautiful flowers and foliage.

Dominic, of  Belleau Kitchen made the special celebratory cake, which was featured in Lincolnshire Life Magazine.

The loaf cake which you can see is made to his mother's recipe - Banana Loaf - and was superb.

Andy constantly recharged our  champagne glasses and  we nibbled on dainty cucumber sandwiches and delicious tartlets with melt-in-the-mouth pastry and savoury fillings.

We all took along a baked contribution and soon the table was full.  I had been asked to take some scones, which I was happy to do.

Conversation and laughter flowed as we met new friends and chatted with friends we don't see nearly as often as we would wish.

Afternoon became early evening and the sun shone brightly, the air became warm.     Lots of slices of cake were eaten -  I felt it was my duty to sample as many as possible - so did most of our friends.

Dominic did come in for a little teasing about scones...a couple of years ago I happened to win first prize, in the Scone category at the village show.  He had to settle for third..

I don't think he has quite forgiven me...so watch this blog in August, I'll let you know how we get on.


The kettles were put on the stove and pots of tea were made - beautiful china cups and saucers were filled and we all got our second breath as we sipped a very nice brew or two.

As the daylight began to fade we pulled on our boots and walked back home, our path took us right past the dovecote and through the farm yard, over the river and through the fields to Aby.

I glanced over to the fish pond and just had to get my camera out.
It was the perfect end to a very special day.
Thank you, Dominic and Andy, it was wonderful. xx

Village Celebrations

Our village is small, but the village green is large; it is tucked away from sight, right in the middle of the triangle of roads which form the village.   Houses back on to it and encircle it, which is slightly different to most village greens where houses look out on to the green.  

In the centre of the green is a small pavillion around which families and friends gathered.  Tables and chairs were brought from the village hall and, despite the cold wind and the threatening rain picnic food was shared and enjoyed...washed down by the odd jug or two of Pimms.

I wore patriotic red, white, and blue clothing and I was pleased to see that quite a number of other people did too.  Check out these patriotic shoes worn by Annie!

The green was festooned with lots of bunting and there was a real celebratory air as food was shared and friends caught up with one another.

We were fortunate because we only had one short spell of rain - there was a flurry of activity as food was wrapped and tables cleared, coats were hastily pulled on and we prepared to make the 200 yard dash to the village hall....but it proved unnecessary.  The sun broke through and the games began!

There were Egg and Spoon races, Wheelbarrow Races (with one person being the wheelbarrow, the other 'pushing'),  Boules, Gymnastics Displays, games of Rounders...

everyone participated in some way; we were forced into it by Annie..she did a brilliant job and really got the party going.

There were special Jubilee mugs for the children and  hand knitted celebratory teddy bears, which were so cute we all wanted one.

This is the beacon on the green, it is used on special occasions.  It may have been lit last night, I don't honestly know  because by that time I had moved on to another party.....

It was held here, at a beautiful cottage which has the most wonderful English country cottage gardens, with superb views across the meadows and  the dovecote,  and food it was well worth giving up the diet for.

I'll post about this party later, once I sort through the photographs.

I hope Her Majesty has had as much fun as we, her subjects, have enjoyed.

Alford, Links to America

Our nearest market town is very small and often very sleepy, but it is packed with history;  it used to be a centre for smuggling sheep wool!    I have teased out a couple links to America, which I hope you will enjoy.

The road which I take to town leads us in past the very fine five-sailed windmill which was built in 1837.    It is a working mill with a tea-room alongside, which sells cakes and scones made with their freshly ground flours.

St Wilfrid's Church, which I'll post about separately, is over 650 years old.  The room over the south porch (where the flags are) is the Parvis room, which was used as the first grammar school, in the town, during Elizabethan times.

In 2007 there were celebrations to remember John Smith, the explorer,  a  former pupil of the school.  He was saved from death by Pocahontas!
John Smith became Virginia's first Governor.

The road sweeps around the church and we come to a fork - the right hand road leads to the Manor House and on out of town, we'll take the left hand road into the small market square.

This is, without doubt, George's favourite shop.  It is a good old fashioned establishment which sells all those essentials like screws, nails, bolts, door handles, fork handles, candles, cookware and kettles.

You can see that they have trimmed the place, to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, with bunting and balloons.

There are cute little alleyways with useful businesses, like the fish and chip shop and the laundrette.

The market square is very small, when there isn't a market being held it is used for car parking.

Writing this post has taught me another lesson... I am, yet again, found guilty of judging a book by its cover, or in this case a building by its facade.

To the left of this photograph you can see part of The Windmill Hotel.  My eye has always skimmed over it, simply because of the enormous lettering proclaiming "The Windmill Family & Commercial Hotel".  It has always looked seedy and down at heel to me.

However, upon doing my research I discover that it has a fascinating history.  The present building dates from the late 18th century, although there has been an inn on the site for much longer.  In the 18th century it not only offered accommodation to travellers and families, but it was the civic centre for the town and held the Magistrates Court.

Thomas Paine worked as an excise officer in what is now room 105,  the Bridal Suite... the bay window on the first floor of the lemon coloured building to the left of the photograph.  Paine emigrated to America in 1774 and became an influential writer (Common Sense)  and became good friends with Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.   He later wrote "The Rights of Man" and "The Age of Reason", both of which are still published today.

Another link is Anne Hutchinson, born in Alford in 1591.  Her husband Will, was a tailor in the market place;  they had 14 children.  The Hutchinson family sailed to America in 1634 with their 11 surviving children.   Deeply religious,  Anne became one of America's first women preachers.  In 1643 the settlement where Anne lived was attacked by Indians and Anne and six of her children were killed.  Her daughter Susanna aged 9 was captured and held for 4 years, but was eventually returned.

This is a little snap showing just the tiniest bit of Alford Manor House which is believed to be the largest thatched manor house in England.  It was built in 1611 in a traditional H shape.  It has the bunting out to celebrate the Jubilee, the tents are there because the well regarded Craft Market is also being held this weekend.

The shops have put on special little window displays - but other than a few stretches of bunting, Alford Town hasn't really done much to dress the town for the celebrations.

This is a window of one of the antique shops - the rooms and spaces are rented to individual dealers. and I think this dealer has been squirrelling suitable items away for this occasion.  It looks lovely.

This road leads out, past the thatched houses which I showed you a few days ago.  The town may look quiet - but that is because these photos were taken at about 6am on Saturday morning,  I wanted to beat the traffic so you could see the buildings.