By D Stimson
We had a wonderful tea party on Sunday, but hopelessly over-catered. We made sandwiches and cakes at home, determined not to buy them in as we didn’t want to have to use clingfilm or other single use plastic to keep them fresh from shop to table. Unfortunately, our exuberance led to too much food. Fortunately, Lucy’s kids had a movie night at their school,
so the food was snapped up by hungry teenagers. I wonder if we aren’t too careful about offering perfectly good food to neighbours if we find we’re left with too much. The English reserve? I do it with flowers and produce from my garden all the time – why not with home cooked food?
Speaking of flowers, we had a budget of £30 for 20 arrangements for the tea party, so I made pots out of empty cans covered with wrapping paper, then varnished, and filled them with a combination of home grown and bought flowers. We were going to raffle them off for £5 a pot, but in the end gave them to special guests and the workers who’d given up their Sundays to make the party a success.
A good day all round!