Entirely Sufficed, Replete and Stuffed.

Often when people settle in the South west they O.D. on cream teas and when completely glutted renounce then for the duration. I decided to make an exception when we heard that a dear niece was popping in to see us en route from Chamonix, where she lives, to a wedding in Chard. It would be too late for lunch; too early for dinner so afternoon tea seemed apt.

It was fun getting out the good china, one of my mother’s beautiful embroidered cloths and silver packed away to avoid endless cleaning. Wrapped in polythene seems to work and it was still brightly shining. I decided on scones, a berried jam and clotted cream. Scotch pancakes, crumpets, chocolate cake and Victoria sponge are favourites with MTL (although not encouraged) so they were included with cheese and ham rolls on stand-by should she feel like savoury stuff.

My # son was here when we heard she was coming so he sweetly wrote precise instruction, googling the actual roads for signs how to get from the M5 to here. Whilst we were at it we looked at our old cottage in Yorkshire and my mother’s old house in Lancashire - fascinating!

The first thing my niece said when she arrived was how excellent the instructions were. The secret seemed to be to tell her the distance between the various signs. I shall keep them for posterity – or the next person who visits.

I’ve already been asked for photos of the spread but I didn’t think before, and we more or less scoffed the lot. I had forgotten the utter bliss of the combo; jam, cream and scone and ate the last one in the hope it would put me off them in future. At least we didn’t need dinner. I hadn’t seen Chris since my Father’s funeral so we had lots of catching up to do. I was disappointed to miss her wedding some months ago but travelling wasn’t possible. We have had some very sad times in the past so it was great to see her happy.

The photograph is my niece and I AFTER the spread.

The young man is my grand-son taken last week-end and the other photo is when he was a baby at my father’s funeral. He didn’t attend the service but his presence afterwards gave my mother and I some blessed comfort.