.....a very different sort of 'party' compared to the wild things of years ago but never mind, sometimes we have to accept being 'grown-ups'....

We’ve got our table in its rightful place – the dining room. Why is this such an amazing statement? Isn’t that where table is meant to be? Yes. It is. The problem has been that ours has been occupying a sizable space in our garage since we moved into the house to discover the table wouldn’t come in through any of the doors.

The table is huge – it’s 9’x4’6” and made from solid English Oak. It is a very beautiful object indeed. It was hand made for me by a friend of my Dad’s called Antonio in a small business somewhere in the North East I think. I tried to Google his company’s name so I could add a link but there are a number of companies listed with similar names and I’m not sure which is his. My Dad was (and surprisingly is again, given that he retired two years ago) in the furniture business and had many contacts who have, at various times, helped me to fulfil my love of real wood!

Drastic measures had to be taken because it would have been a wicked sin to leave this lovely thing to the ravages of the South West’s damp atmosphere in the garage. Sooner or later, it would have become mush.

So, we took out a rotten window and replaced it with a new one. While the window was out, the table came in through the hole in the wall!!! Hurrah.

This was just the excuse I needed to invite our friends round for supper so again Becks and Iain came over and ate with us. This piccy was taken when I’d just served up our appetiser – stuffed Ramiro peppers and before the home-made pasta and bread.

The food is only a tiny bit of the story though. The flowers in the vase in the front of the pic were cut from our garden only an hour earlier – the whole garden is waking up and seems full of joy. I’d not normally want to take things from the garden into the house but there are so many flowering plants out there that these few were not missed at all.

The little starry things at the end of the table were a gift from Hughie and Shazbop a couple of years ago and are intended for use in the garden. I just popped them into a vase and they make lovely ambient lights. You might notice that one of the ‘sprays’ is unlit. When we put them into the vase for some reason one of them didn’t work and although DM and I both poked them about a bit we couldn’t fix them. As of this morning – they work perfectly. Becky has a magic touch and has fixed them for us…..albeit accidentally!

I am writing this account of the proceedings ‘the morning after the night before’ and am a bit fuggy in the way that only a bit too much of the red stuff can bring. I do know, though, that I had a great time and I think the other folks sat around the table did too.

BTW - Becks is looking terrified because she was worried about moving in the long exposure, not because she was terrified about eating what was on her plate......or at least I think so!!!

This image has been ‘doctored’ in as much as it was very, very grainy so I popped it through Neat Image – that’s such a cool bit of software, I love it.

The shot was taken on the ailing 10D, which is a major relief for me but one of its new cranky bits is that it thinks it’s 1980 – long before the 10D was even a glint in its designers’ eyes - for some reason!!!!

Last year, we were in the midst of chaos