"Our" visiting cat - she came to see us often last year, but these pictures are from this year, taken with my mobile phone while I was sitting on the bench in front of the cottage and she was rolling around on the ground:
We met George Pickles (the former Hornblower of Ripon, who has featured on my blog a few times, for instance on this (sort of) guest post, and his lovely wife Lilian for lunch at the "Water Rat", a popular pub within easy walking distance from our cottage. We had a nice meal in delightful company but ate only lightly - you will see why in a minute.
Anyway, it was wonderful to meet George and Lilian again, and we certainly are going to repeat that next year.
In the afternoon, my sister-in-law picked us up, and we drove to Swinton Park, a large estate outside Masham where we were booked for afternoon tea at Swinton Park Hotel - an experience I can highly recommend!
It had been my sister-in-law's suggestion, as she had been to the hotel at a wedding reception some time ago and really liked the place. Look at the pictures, and you'll understand why!
Our table, seen from different perspectives:
I do not have permission of my companions to show their picture on my blog, so you'll have to make do with me sitting between two black rectangles - but the picture shows the beautiful room so well! We each had a settee to ourselves, we only were sitting on one for the photo which our waitress kindly took:
There was everything you'd expect from a "high tea": sandwiches (four different types for each of us, for instance egg and cress, ham, salmon, and probably cucumber), small cakes (in German, we'd call these petit fours), scones (plain and fruit ones), tea cake with cheese, and some shortbread to top it all off), and of course tea! The tea menue gave you a choice of several very nice teas. I went for a "China Rose", which was delicious. To start with, we had champagne - see the size of our glasses?!
You can learn more about Swinton Park here.
The room where we had our tea was through the open door/window you can see here:
View from the front of the castle:
The former stables are now a cookery school:
We were eating and drinking, chatting and laughing for the better part of two hours. The food and drink were delicious, the service great, and the entire afternoon was simply wonderful and definitely worth every penny of the 25 pounds per person. Afterwards, we were so full we did not need anything to eat in the evening!
Well, that was the last of our holiday. It was great, and we will definitely be back next year.
What a lovely tea and a lovely room to have it in!
ReplyDeleteSo happy you got to meet up with Mr. and Mrs. Pickles!
You said you had two types of scones...plain and fruit. I have fond memories of the CHEESE scones, please tell me they were the cheese ones!
No, they weren't. But you can see me eating a cheese scone here :-)
DeleteIdyllic. And do you say 'scon' or scown'? It is a contentious debate in my country...and taken as seriously as the question of whether aliens inhabit Wigan (they do).
ReplyDeleteI've heard both, and personally prefer saying "scon", although I don't really mind how they are pronounced as long as I get to eat them!
DeleteHow wonderful the surroundings and nothing says 'British' like a Cream Tea!
ReplyDeleteThe debate about 'scon' or 'scown' lives on, I use the former myself. I wonder if it's a location pronunciation? I live in The Cotswolds but am married to a Northerner who would use the latter.
Your annual trip to Yorkshire was lovely to read about, as always. :)
Thank you for coming along, Karen :-)
DeleteThe Cream Tea was indeed a very British experience, and one that we definitely want to repeat.
Looks and sounds like a great ending to a good holiday! I think I've heard of Swinton Park but not sure of the context.
ReplyDeleteIt was, Monica!
DeleteMaybe you have heard of Swinton Park because of the cookery School. Some rather well known Cooks have been teaching there, I've been told.
Sorry, have enjoyed your posts but haven't had time to comment lately - time is my enemy!
ReplyDeleteLovely to read all those stories of your holiday this year. Can see you really made good use of the time there in the lovely English countryside. Don't you just love teatime in an English country house? Swinton Park does look beautiful.
Have just returned from a couple of coastal days here - always refreshing to see the sea even if no time to take a dip!
Have a fun weekend - is Germany having the heatwave weather like other European countries?
Hugs - Mary
We always do, Mary (make good use of our time in Yorkshire), and yes, we loved teatime in the Country house! From the Pictures on the Website, the Hotel rooms at Swinton Park are just as wonderful. But we'll still go back to our Cottage - it is much more convenient for us.
DeleteToday, it seems like our heatwave is broken. We had a hot and humid spell here with thunderstorms and heavy rainfall, but today Looks just beautiful, sunny and a lot cooler.
OH! That beautiful tea table....! And food looks divine. Champagne in the afternoon? In a beautiful tea room? Yes, please!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking us along on your wonderful holiday. I've enjoyed these posts so much! :)
It was great, Jennifer, we really struggled to eat it all up (the others didn't). We felt this last day of our Holiday needed champagne!
DeleteThank you for coming along, I'm glad you enjoyed my Holiday Posts :-)
Your afternoon tea reminded me of the days of my youth when an older friend and colleague (who before going into law had been a chef!) took me to the Adelphi Hotel (in those days a very grand place) for afternoon tea because he said it was the best value in town. He was right and it was by no means my last visit.
ReplyDeleteIt is comforting, isn't it, that some good things never change (or at least not so fast and drastically as to affect us greatly during our lives).
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