Cream Teas

Every year from June to September, on the first Sunday of the month we have cream teas on our church lawn. On offer are scones, with jam and clotted cream, a plethora of home made cakes, and very nice cups of tea or coffee. 

It's always well attended but today saw a bumper crop of  customers. I think it was a combination of it being the last one and lovely warm weather.

oOo

Here in the UK at 3pm we received an emergency alert test on our mobile phones. I think it's the first time we've had one of these. It's an important step in keeping people safe during national emergencies. I think it's a good idea.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

A Good Read

I, Mona Lisa by Natasha Solomons 

It is widely thought that Lisa del Giocondo was the inspiration for Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting The Mona Lisa. She was the wife of wealthy Florentine silk merchant Francesco del Giocondo. The painting is thought to have been commissioned for their new home, and to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea.

Imagine da Vinci's studio, bursting with genius imagination, towering commissions and demanding patrons, as well as discontented muses, friends and rivals, and in the midst of all this sits the painting of Mona Lisa. For five hundred tumultuous years, amid a whirlwind of power, money and intrigue, the portrait of Lisa del Giocondo was sought after and stolen.

Weaving through the years, the story takes us from the dazzling world of Florentine studios, via rivalry, murder and heartbreak, to the French courts at Fontainebleau and Versailles, and into the Twentieth Century.

This is the story of the painting narrated by the painting.

The majority of my book club friends didn’t like this, they thought a talking painting was silly, but I liked it. I thought the journey of the painting that Solomons created was quite clever.

∼ Happy Reading∼ 

Polly x

Addiction, Time Wasting or

Excercise For The Little Grey Cells?

I never understood Sudoku, I couldn't see the point of it but last March when I visited my darling daughter in Australia she explained how it worked. I bought a puzzle book and became hooked, and now I have installed it on my phone!

Oh dear, whilst I'm sure there has to be a certain amount of brain activity playing any games, I know without a shadow of a doubt that it is addictive and time wasting! But also fun and challenging!

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

A Good Read

Be Careful What You Wish For by Jeffrey Archer is the fourth book in the Clifton Chronicles series.

     

This is the one I was meant to request instead of the other Be Careful What You Wish For! 

When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him. But Don Pedro Martinez intends to install his puppet, the egregious Major Alex Fisher, in order to destroy the Barrington family firm just as the company plans to build its new luxury liner, the MV Buckingham.

Back in London, Harry and Emma's adopted daughter wins a scholarship to the Slade Academy of Art where she falls in love with a fellow student, Clive Bingham, who asks her to marry him. Both families are delighted until Priscilla Bingham, Jessica's future mother-in-law, has a visit from an old friend, Lady Virginia Fenwick, who drops her particular brand of poison into the wedding chalice.

Then, without warning, Cedric Hardcastle, a bluff Yorkshireman who no one has come across before, takes his place on the board of Barringtons. This causes an upheaval that none of them could have anticipated, and will change the lives of every member of the Clifton and Barrington families. Hardcastle's first decision is who to support to become the next chairman of the board: Emma Clifton or Major Alex Fisher? And with that decision, the story takes yet another twist.

∼ Happy Reading∼ 

Polly x

A Fairly Good Read

Be Careful What You Wish For by Vivien Brown
Two women swap homes for a month, each wanting a bit of time away from their normal everyday lives and problems.
Former actress Madi is recovering from cancer and wants to escape from her lonely London life. She has started to forget things and has a feeling that she is being watched.
Prue feels suffocated by her claustrophobic village life and has suffered a devastating public humiliation. All she wants now is anonymity in London.
Two strangers, a chance to escape …. Or is it?

I thought I had requested Be Careful What You Wish for by Jeffrey Archer, but it wasn't until I got home and actually looked at the book that I realised my mistake!! So I thought I might as well read it. It was ok. I liked the main characters and it was interesting, if a bit predictable, reading how they each settled into their new habitats. There were hints that something was afoot but halfway through nothing significant had happened, it did pick up a bit though.

∼ Happy Reading∼ 

Polly x

Afternoon Tea

My WI's annual summer outing was to Ongar garden centre 

where we enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea.

Mini quiches, sandwiches, scones with cream and jam, and cakes. Most of us couldn't manage it all, we took the cakes home for later! 

And afterwards we browsed around the shop

It was a lovely day with glorious weather

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

Morris Dancing

Morris Dancing is a traditional form of English folk dance. Its history is long and somewhat debated, with the earliest written record dating back to 1448. While its exact origins are unclear, it is believed to be at least 600 years old and possibly older. Each village had its own distinct dance style and dances which have been passed down through the generations since time immemorial. In days gone by, to be chosen to dance The Morris was an honour.

Last Thursday the Mayflower Morris Men were performing in the village pub

All dances involve musicians, rhythmic stepping, choreographed figures, and the use of bells, swords, handkerchiefs, colourful costumes, beautiful hats and stick-clashing - said to frighten away evil spirits.

There is also a Fool and an Animal - this time a naughty badger

The audience were invited to join in, I joined in the next one.

Me and my lovely friend.

We all had a wonderful time.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

Football

I have never been interested in football and what little I know about the game could be printed on a postage stamp, with room to spare. So it came as quite a surprise to find myself in the pub watching the Lionesses play Spain in the Euro 2025 final. 

Along with some friends and lots of ardent football fans we cheered the girls to victory after a penalty shootout. Occasionally a friend had to explain what was happening!  

Whilst I did enjoy the match and felt tremendous pride for the team I don't think I will become a fan, but might watch key matches in future.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

A Good Read

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker continues the story after The Silence of the girls.

Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with the spoils of war - including the women of Troy themselves. They wait for a fair wind for the Aegean, but it doesn’t arrive because the gods are offended. The body of King Priam lies unburied and desecrated and so the victors remain in suspension, camped in the shadows of the city they destroyed. As the coalition that held them together begins to unravel old feuds resurface and new suspicions and rivalries begin to fester.

Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles's slave, now belonging to his companion Alcimus, quietly takes in these developments. She forges alliances when she can, with Priam's aged wife the defiant Hecuba and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.

I have read reviews that have described this as boring. I don't agree but .... not much happens, there isn't a plot, but I didn’t mind that, I was interested in the post-war logistics, and the lives of the women, particularly Briseis.

∼ Happy Reading∼ 

Polly x

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Yesterday evening I went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream performed by

The British Touring Shakespeare Company.

The programmes were designed by some of the village school children.

It was held in the meadow behind the church

with a lovely sensory garden (not looking its best with all the dry weather)

it was the perfect setting.

Crowd gathering. Most people took a picnic. I think 250 tickets had been sold

A beautiful setting, glorious weather and accomplished actors made for a wonderful time.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

Book Club

My village book club met yesterday evening in our pub

where it all started 9 years ago. 

We had a reserved table in the snug and they provided tea, coffee and cakes. How lovely was that.

We had eaten some of the cakes before I took the photo!

A few were absent. We all enjoyed the book that we had read last month.

It was so good to be back.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

A Good Read

The Silence of The Girls by Pat Barker is the story of the Trojan women taken prisoner during the Trojan War, a legendary conflict in Greek mythology, where the Greeks besieged the city of Troy in Turkey.
Pat Barker writes about the effects of war very well, never labouring the pointlessness of this Greek-Trojan war which, as the foreword describes "is the result of a bar-room brawl over a woman". That woman being Helen.

The war began when Paris, a Trojan prince, abducted Helen, the wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta.

The story is famous for its key characters - Achilles, Hector, and Odysseus, and for the iconic Trojan Horse, a ruse used by the Greeks to infiltrate and conquer the city. 

In the Greek camp, Briseis watches and waits for the war's outcome. She was queen of one of Troy's neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, ransacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a totally different life, and when Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks.
Observant and unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position, able to observe the two men driving the Greek army in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate not only of Briseis' people but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one of thousands of women living behind the scenes - the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead. Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp vividly to life.

With complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, it's a very good read.

∼ Happy Reading∼ 

Polly x

Open For Business

Our much awaited event has happened - my village pub is open!

Yesterday was the formal opening.

Three of us popped in after our church cafe stint.

This afternoon myself, my daughter and friends went down. An Elton John tribute was the spitting image of the real man, and sounded just like him too.

 It was wonderful to see so many people enjoying the pub and the glorious weather. The outside areas were standing room only. We managed to find seating in the shade.

Everywhere looked lovely. I was so happy thinking

"This is my pub, I own a bit of it!"

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x 

A Nice Walk

With the U3a yesterday

The weather was hot

so it was very nice that some parts of the walk were in lovely cool shade

We had a choice here, to the left in sunshine with a slight incline, or to the right in shade on level terrain. I chose right.

A short refreshment stop

We saw a few of these pretty pyramid orchids

After working up an appetite we all enjoyed our meals at the pub.

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x