Jersey: Peacock feathers and chocolate drops

Having filled our bellies with champagne, it was now time to sway into the restaurant for the reception. Each table was dressed with flowers and peacock feathers and Helen’s Dad had done the calligraphy for the place cards himself.

So let’s talk about the important stuff first: the food.

The starter: Pan roast hot smoked salmon, roast lemon aioli, grilled wild mushrooms and baby leeks with pecorino, pink pepper and parsley pesto. A dish for fans of alliteration.

The main: Pan roast corn-fed chicken breast with sweet potato mash, baby leeks, crisp pancetta and tarragon cream sauce.

And for dessert: Assiette of steamed raspberry sponge with advocaat cream, classic chocolate mousse and champagne and strawberry jelly. All three desserts were delicious and the sponge had lavender flower buds sprinkled on top – the first time I’d ever eaten lavender. If I’d had my laptop with me, we’d have been videoing a variety of approving noises for Helen and Steve’s choice of dishes. As it was, we made do with giving Helen our thumbs up across the restaurant.

The speeches came before dessert and despite leaving half his notes behind, Ricky pulled off his best man’s speech with panache and a lot of good one-liners. My favourite being “I’ve got a lot riding on this. Steve said that if I do a good job, I can be best man at his next wedding.”

Later on Peter, Helen’s Dad, did a quiz – clearly setting quizzes runs in the family. However Peter’s quiz was right up my street and my team ended up winning. There were a number of different categories, but celebrity trivia in cryptic crossword clue form? I AM THERE. We won chocolate drops made by the vineyard and could choose between bookmarks or magnets. I went for a bookmark – (a) because I like to think I might read a book again one day and (b) a lot of my possessions could be ruined pretty quickly by a magnet.

After dinner there was music and dancing and wedding cupcakes were laid out for those not completely stuffed already. I sat outside for a while with the others enjoying the summer evening. At one point I noticed that I was missing the top button on my dress and magically Lauren remembered that I had mentioned something pinging against me sometime earlier. I was still sitting in the same place and so we dived to the ground to look for it. Amazingly Suzy found the little green button by the light of her mobile phone, hidden in the grass under the picnic table.

At quarter to one the taxis arrived and we set off back to our hotel, wishing Helen and Steve a happy honeymoon – and promising to get together for food again soon. Because clearly we’ve not eaten enough yet.

Click the high-kicking legs for more photos from the reception

Jersey: Vows and champagne

At the vineyard we were directed straight to the wedding – hey, vineyard lady, what tipped you off that we weren’t here for the tour? The suit, dresses and hat maybe? We joined other suitably attired guests by the vineyard restaurant and grabbed drinks to keep us going before the bride arrived.

The bride’s mother was already there and I’d been looking forward to seeing her. I hadn’t seen Christine for years, but she was exactly as I remembered her. Mad as a hatter. For those who haven’t met her, I’d describe her as a mix between Sharon Osbourne and Julie Walters (ie, brilliant). One time in our early teens Helen was driven by Christine to my house to spend the day. She came round the back with Helen to meet Mum, but on stepping into the garden bypassed Mum, shooting across the lawn, exclaiming, “what a wonderful hebe!” But that mild eccentricity is nothing compared to the time she got her family thrown out of Czechoslovakia.

Soon we were being ushered into the small marquee on the pretty lawn; Helen was on her way. She looked beautiful – an elegant white dress, perfect makeup, peacock feather accessories and her nails painted a fantastic peacock blue. Steve’s tie was a similar colour, with a silver peacock feather on it.

The ceremony was simple and sweet, vows and rings were exchanged and soon they were Mr and Mrs.

Out on the lawn again we all sipped champagne and were served a few delicious hors d’oeuvres while photos were taken. I do wish people would serve me hors d’oeuvres more often. Just the occasional tiny tartlet during the working day would really keep me going.

Click the obscurely placed wine glass for more photos from the wedding on Flickr.

Back from Jersey

A very good time was had by all. The weather treated us kindly, Helen and Steve had a beautiful wedding and now I’ve got 600 photos to whittle down to something sensible …

The Summer Party

On the 3rd July we had our annual Summer Party. I know, I know, how were you meant to turn up on time if I only told you a week and a half too late? Well if you’d been watching my Twitter feed, the food production I was tweeting would have been a clue. Tarts, cupcakes, pork noodle balls, sausage rolls (some of which accidentally fell into my open mouth) were made and Mum had the day off work the day before the party for us both to get really stuck in on making as much as possible in advance, meaning we didn’t have too much to do when the guests started arriving.

Here Helen demonstrates what not to do with the electric fly swat. It’s a small racquet with a button on the side, which when pressed allows, I don’t know, a million volts to flow through the wires, zapping whatever flying, buzzing thing you manage to hit with it (others hire magicians and chocolate fountains for their celebrations, we demonstrate the fly swat). Five-year-old Darcie was immensely drawn to this device in Uncle John’s hands and took a lot of persuading that no, she really didn’t want to touch it. If grownups have enough trouble resisting touching the wires when they’re live (and, oh, we do), there wasn’t much hope for her.

After all the talk of how much food we made – and we did, we made a lot – this is the only photo I took of anything edible. These are the famous cinnamon rolls from The Pioneer Woman and they really are as good as she says. They also win big brownie points by being freezable. Fifteen minutes in the oven from frozen and bam! you can present your guests with a delicious, intricate dessert warm from the oven that you apparently just that moment whipped up when they were distracted by the fly swat.

We had a beautiful day for the party – the sun shone and everyone sat out in the garden to talk and enjoy the food. Nigel had also brought along a few bottles of Farmer’s Ales for people to try, products of his own brewery in Essex. Appreciative noises all round from those who tried them. And from all who devoured the food too. See you all next year!

Going Ape

A few weeks ago we headed to Bedgebury Forest for the first part of bride-to-be Helen’s hen do. The second part was to be a meal at a Mexican restaurant, but first Helen wanted to make her friends work. At Bedgebury is Go Ape – a series of five courses with rope ladders, bridges, ziplines and cargo nets all to be traversed way up high in the trees. I was unfortunately far too small to get kitted out with a harness and get up in the trees, but went along to laugh at the others and take photos of their combination of trepidation and glory through the day. The trepidation began as soon as the training session started, as this brilliant collection of expressions shows.

Once educated on how to attach one’s harness and pulley to the lines there was a low wire walkway to get across followed by a short zipline. A little warmup for what we could discern through the trees of further along the course, with people flying through the air on ropes – and one guy in particular shrieking like a girl every time he did so.

I hope this kid got to take his branch home.

This is Helen’s sister Katherine coming to a stop at the end of a long zipline. The wood chippings may be up in the air here, but if you landed backwards rather than coming in forwards on your feet, they soon made themselves at home in your pants. Or so I hear.

It was quite a workout for my neck, looking up at everybody in the trees. The highest point of the course was at site 2, where the zipline platform was 13m high. I think this may have been the longest crossing of 20.5 metres. Those cargo nets looked like hard work. The ziplines on the other hand looked like so much fun.

Helen, returning to the ground via the longest zipwire on the course – 146 metres long. This is just a selection of the photos I took that day – if you want to see more swinging through trees, the whole set can be seen at Flickr.

Easter cupcakes

Suzy is a good friend. She buys me chocolate for Easter. And this year I for once didn’t forget that she does this and actually thought to do something for her too. This makes me an exceptional friend. You see, this year was the exception to the rule, therefore I am exceptional.

These are chocolate and hazelnut cupcakes with a couple of Cadbury’s mini eggs on top. I made them for Suzy the day she came over for lunch, but wasn’t quite finished by the time she arrived, which meant sequestering her in the living room while I finished off the icing. She had my mother for company, which seemed to result in a list being compiled of things I can do should I ever dare say I’m bored. So that’s the last time I leave those two alone.

Bowling à la Suzy

Approach 1:

Hold the ball high above your head, putting the fear of God into those behind you, before throwing it down the lane with great venom. The ball should make a satisfying, loud SMACK as it hits the floor with force, so as to underscore your great might.

Approach 2:

At the urging of your (cowering) friends, try releasing the ball from your grasp much closer to the ground. Rather than being one step away from throwing the ball overarm, try a gentle underarm roll.

Ensure your friend is there behind you, looking through the viewfinder, ready to document this new approach.