Celia Hart's blog about what's going on in and around her studio.
Art, printmaking, inspirations, gardening, vegetables, hens, landscapes, wild flowers, East Anglia, adventure, travel.

Sunday, 24 July 2011

. . . and then there was cake!

Yesterday we went to a marvelous party, although I'm not sure Noel Coward would have enjoyed it! no-one stood around a grand piano wearing smoking jackets (however our jackets did get smokey – but that's another story!)

The party hosts were Fiona and Danny of The Cottage Smallholder blog and forum, and the event: The First Cottage Smallholder Party.

I arrived early in the afternoon (Cliff joined us later) and already there was a happy buzz with people in the kitchen and scattered along the various "rooms" that make up the outdoor space at CS HQ; in the fashion of media phenomena like Top-Gear or Gardener' World, this was Cottage Smallholder Live, with all the main characters from the blog and forum there in person: The Chicken Lady and S, Ruthdigs and The Chap, Terrier, Danast and Sumprat (complete with smokers and fire-lighting flints!)

The afternoon and evening itinerary progressed thus . . .

Drinks


Cold Buffet


Afternoon cups of tea and cake


Drinks and more cake while the barbecue got fired up


More cake while the meat sizzled


Chicken wings, steaks, sausages and burgers from the barbecue


. . . and then there was cake . . . THE cake!




Thank you Fiona and Danny . . .
it was indeed a marvelous party!


Celia
x

11 comments:

  1. I'm so sad that I couldn't get there, thank you so much for doing the video Celia.

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  2. I was looking forward to meeting you, such a shame you couldn't make it... maybe next year.

    Fiona is putting together a much longer video of the whole event!

    Celia
    x

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  3. That is good news, the Forumites left behind have been fretting...

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  4. I have never seen a poly-tunnel cake before!

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  5. Probably the first and only Polytunnel cake in the world!

    C ;-)

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  6. Although an occasional poster to the forum, I do dip in and out of the blog regularily- being fairly local I was able to get along for a few hours- it was a great afternoon, I'm sorry to have missed the rest of it. My initial interest in CSH was the alcoholic recipes as that related to my job, but now just retired, i'll take more of an interest.
    Good to meet you and some of the other "names" on the list.

    Martin aka "Liquineer"

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  7. Dont you just love cake! It does sound like a Marvellous Party!

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  8. Did you actually have any room left for the barbecue once it was cooked ... having filled the waiting time eating cake?!

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  9. That looks a lot of fun. I like the reassuring 'there IS cake in that igloo'.
    About my video: just take a load of pics and upload them to a slide show set on something like 0.25 seconds. Easy!
    Now tell me how to grow veg.
    My Broad beans have still not produced beans and the flowers have gone black! I think I'll give up ...again. No slugs on them but absolutely covered in blackflies. Only last week Monty was on about 'now its time to pull up your broad bean plants;'!!!

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  10. Yes we all had a great time and we had room for the BBQ and the finale cake too :-)

    Jackie - oh dear! I know you live much further north than me so my advice may not work for you. If I were you I'd sow some mange tout (tall climbing ones) around wigwams. protect with netting right down to the ground and you should get a late summer crop. And wait til February to plant the next lot of broad beans.

    Celia
    x

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