Thornbury Castle

Yesterday John took the afternoon off work and we spent a delightful afternoon at Thornbury Castle Hotel, enjoying their afternoon tea menu. This was a wedding present which has taken us a long time to get around to using. It almost didn't happen as the voucher was due to expire while I am away in Brazil, and we had run out of free weekends. Thankfully, John is able to take time off work at very short notice, and I have free afternoons, which made Thursday the perfect day for a spot of afternoon tea.

We were greeted by this fellow, then taken to our armchairs that were situated in a room with incredibly high ceilings, an open fire, and a wonderfully diverse range of books. John read about helicopters and yachts, and I read about country homes and hotels. Not particularly diverse, but interesting all the same.

We didn't have to wait long to be served our assortment of crustless sandwiches and cakes. With the amount of food we had to consume, we were both glad that we hadn't eaten lunch, otherwise we would have been requesting doggy-bags, and I'm pretty certain this would not be the expected etiquette in a castle.

The cakes were delicious. The meringue was perfectly light, sandwiched together with cream containing vanilla pod seeds; the brownie was the most velvety brownie I have ever tasted, and the chocolate eclair had just the right amount of cream. Yum.

We took our time in consuming these treats, enjoying the beauty of the castle to the full, to make the most of this lovely treat. After we could eat no more (we had to leave a scone - two each was just a little too much), we took a turn about the grounds. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that John strolled around the grounds while I balanced my camera precariously in various places, set the timer, then ran to John so we could get some photos of the two of us. That ended up looking a little something like this...

Or this...

A beautiful weeping willow catches John's eye. We decide it would be a great spot for a photo. Trees are great by themselves, but with people in front, they're even more exciting. Here goes...

Q:Is John holding his arms out ready for an embrace, or to help me find him as he is so tiny compared to the trees? 

 Nearly there! Running across grass in heels is a risky business!

A:Neither embrace, nor to show me where he is. I found him and he's not embracing. John, why are you still holding your arms out?

And that's the end of the story about how I took the photo of a weeping willow and us simultaneously.

We had such a fun, relaxing afternoon, and are very thankful to our friends who gave us such a lovely wedding present.