Surprise Garden Party

The triathlon morning had been completed. Done and dusted. The birthday event system has been going on for thirty years and all the time we can both manage to swim bike and run at all it will continue I’m sure.

Steve’s big day got even bigger in the afternoon since my daughter Jacqueline and our Son-in law Martin devised a delightful way to get round all the problems that surround us at this time. They allowed themselves to be conned into being party managers for a special birthday lunch that would let us celebrate Stephen’s 70^th together.

From expecting a picnic lunch that was first mentioned it turned into a rather quite grand affair. We were expected at 2pm and Martin came outside their lovely home to greet us as we drove in. He directed us to go through the gate to the garden at the rear of the house. When we got to the back gate there was a notice that stated: If your are 3652+4 days old or 25,568 days old or 613,632 hours old, then this may be your party!

Passing through into the garden was amazing, since they had erected a gazebo with most elegantly furnished and social distancing around the large garden dining set. Flowers stood in a vase at the centre and the table immaculately laid. They were three big balloons all showing a big 70.

We had a lovely lunch put together by a combination of Jakki and Martin’s considerable talents, Martin cooking the salmon for the main course. There was lots of delicious salad from their own vegetable garden. The total knock-out finale was the HUGE birthday cake topped with fresh forest fruits and dainty meringue flowers made by a friend of Jakki’s at very short notice, Clair Elise Pritchard thank you so much for jumping in to help with the day. Steve’s face was a picture of astonishment.

It was our first outing in well over four months and made up for the deprivation perfectly.

 

Jakki and Martins young dog still in the late stages of puppy hood enjoyed all the excitement and did his best to entertain but just as children can get over excited and start to be naughty…  I didn’t notice anything amiss until I felt a tug across my foot and looked under the table to see what was going on. I had placed my best little Karen Millen yellow bucket bag on the grass by the leg of my chair. Young Jeffery had his nose right inside the bag and was chomping away at something inside and as I tried to retrieve it from the puppy my eyes widened as I saw my little red debit card drop out on to the lawn. He had chewed it thoroughly into the most extraordinary mess of dents and holes and ripples. It was the end of life for that card. There was nothing that you could do but laugh, nuisance as it would be to replace. He was just a puppy having fun.

All that is left for me to say a massive thank you to the three of them for giving Steve and I a warm fizzy feeling of happiness. It was so kind of them to work so hard at making it truly a memorable day.