Jubilee!

At Hazel Cottage we are putting together the final touches for a Diamond Jubilee Tea Party we are organising at our local church.  Eggs have been boiled and blancmange made.  We have made about 30 metres of red white and blue bunting, the tables and chairs are in place and tomorrow anything from 60 to 100 people of all ages will turn up with varying amounts of food to share.  We've found that these events take on a life of their own, we've lost count of the number of people, and slightly lost a handle of what food people are bringing.  But we know that a crowd of people with turn up, and more than enough food will always appear. 

All of this work is because we really wanted to do something to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee locally and offered to organise something.   Central to our party tomorrow will be our fabulous portrait of the Queen, picked up a car boot or jumble sale a few years back. 

When we found the picture we weren't sure what we would do with it, although we are both monarchists we didn't envisage her sitting above the fireplace!  However this year she will come into her own.

The long bank holiday weekend has meant more work in the garden of course, the weeds seem to be getting the better of me, but I will prevail.  We are also doing battle with the vast number of slugs and snails - the problem with wanting a lush, cottage garden is that there are plenty of places for them to hide it seems.  Although I am trying to be clever and mostly grow plants that they don't eat, the difficulty is with the veg garden, those succulent young seedlings are very tasty.  Wish us luck, we have ordered some nematodes which will help with the slugs at least without harming the birds or our vegetables...

Have a lovely long weekend and God save the Queen!