Birthday Challenge

Well this sounds a strange title but yesterday was my dad's 75th birthday. At the beginning of the year dad had asked my sister and myself to take the day off work - well he never ever asks me to do anything as directly as that, so I didn't like to refuse. I had no idea what I was agreeing to! Last year my sister had her first experience of the day (oops have no idea what's going on with my print!).

It started off, the previous night, with me making a phone call to my sister to hear her sounding rather fraught.  I had no idea just how much work she was putting in to making a bit of tea. My job was just to make dad's birthday cake and his favourite lemon drizzle cake.

Day of the birthday I went to work in the morning, still hadn't got an incline why my sister wanted to arrive soo early at my dads. She mentioned something about getting the tea set out - but I thought she just meant a few sandwiches and a piece of cake.

I arrived at dad's local pub to join up with a group of 12. The sun was blazing hot and it's at this point that I'm beginning to regret having made a chocolate cake, but the pub kindly housed the cake in their walk in fridge. Out in the garden was a cat enjoying the heat.

Inside the pub it took dads' friends about half an hour for them to make their minds up as to what they were going to eat. The young waitress took their orders only to have one of them change their mind about their dinner, others wanting bits added or deducted from their plates. The poor girl ended up with the wrong quantity and ended up doing a head count. Anyway we eventually enjoyed a huge lovely dinner. I couldn't eat all my dinner as there was sooo much. I should explain that other than my sister everyone else was aged 72+ up to 90 years of age! Most of them ate a starter and a dinner, or the dinner and a pud.

We all stagger back to dad's home and they all sit themselves outside in the garden. Meanwhile my sister and I make the drinks. Dad's garden is very long and on a slope - so carrying the tray of drinks was rather tricky. Anyway after a short sit down the guests were HUNGRY! I couldn't believe it. I still hadn't got enough stomach space to even drink a mug of tea. So back up into the kitchen we start dragging out of the fridge the mounds of food that my sister had prepared.


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My sister looking rather exhausted!

In fact she didn't put out all the sandwiches she had made. Of course this was accompanied with more rounds of drinks which had to be carried up and down steps! Then time for the sweet course.

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I could not believe my eyes the guests ate large chunks of the tea - I do not know where they put it all!

A picture of some of the remains of the tea. The weather was gorgeous and it was perfect for the day. Dad spends a lot of time tending to this beautiful garden, let me take you on a quick tour.

This is the very bottom of the garden, then comes the section where the guests were all seated.

I love aubretia, it is so dainty and falls so beautifully over the wall.

Looking up towards the house.

Dad has made this gorgeous little corner to hide the end of the garage.

Dad says these flowers have past their best - hard to believe as they were so dramatic.

Dad has a constant visitor from next door - called "Smokey."

She's just checking that it was safe still to come in with all the visitors around.

Whilst hunting for some matches to light the candles I found in the drawer these mats.

I painted these mats when I was a small child, think I had a stencil kit. I didn't know dad still had them, I had totally forgotten about them. So nice to see something you haven't seen since childhood.

Well I eventually arrived back home at 10pm. I was exhausted but it had been a satisfying day and I think dad had a lovely 75th birthday. Happy Birthday Dad.