Garden Party

 Laura has invited 22 guests from the village to come and "Meet the Australians" at a garden party, with hats.

Much inspection of the forecast, which is for a warmish day with rain in the evening. We fervently hope that the rain part of the forecast is accurate, as 26 people inside the cottage would be an extremely tight squeeze.

With our help, the garden setup is completed with hours to spare.

Eating here

Drinks there

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just as I am about to ask Peter to take a photo of Laura and me in our party finery, with hats, the first guests arrive, so it does not happen. You will have to imagine it, although you can see Laura in hat and frock in the pic below.

Party begins with Laura's string quartet playing in a sheltered corner, but note the pegs on the music to stop it blowing away.

After that we get into serious eating, drinking and talking. The warmish bit of the weather forecast is a lie, no sunshine and a chilly breeze. By mid afternoon everyone dons a jacket or sweater. At about 4pm we start to get the odd drop of rain, but the stoic English ignore that. 

 

Note the sweaters

Thinking about going inside...

Serious rain starts at 6pm, just as it was forecast, and the stayers move inside to continue eating, drinking and talking. A classic Goldsborough garden party concludes when the last guests leave at about 9:30pm, 9 hours after it started.