The Great Afternoon Tea!

I confess I've been a bit useless at writing over the last couple of weeks. Rest assured good people of the Blog-o-sphere I am a) alive and b) still speedily expending my waistline!

I've been having tea!

Summer is apparently here, the sun has shone a handful of times and us Brits are excited! Tom Aikens has opened a deli where Townies and Bumpkin Tourists can feel like they are in their local farm shop, yet pop across the road to visit Somerset House, The London Eye and The National Gallery. Gordon Ramsay is suddenly waxing lyrical about picnic hampers. And of course every glossy food related article i see brings back a haunting memory of my burnt strawberry jam a couple of weeks ago.

Am i more susceptible to this foodie culture that has hit us because I'm writing about it? Or is it because I'm spending all day kicking myself because i forgot to write about it AGAIN?! Or is it simply because we all get so excited when summer arrives? Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall could waffle for days about his allotment, so could Jamie Oliver. Then of course you have the Coren's and Gill's of this world who dine out, literally (sorry, my simpleton's humour rearing it's ugly head) on good SEASONAL food.

I just get so so excited about seasonal food. I jump up and down when the Asparagus season starts, not just because my Mum spoils me more than usual by ensuring that every visit she makes to London, she is laden with Wykham Park Farm Asparagus. The main reason for my excitement at the asparagus season is that it marks the start of everything else.

Things just get better; strawberries, raspberries, Jersey Royals, (or even better in my opinion) Anya potatoes, beans, courgettes. It's just mind boggling what we can grow in the UK. OK, in London it is difficult and I'm often green with envy watching Jamie at Home or The River Cottage, because I, again, forgot to plant my potatoes and have spent my salary this month so can't afford to buy seeds and by payday it'll be too late - huge sigh of sympathy please!!!!

I've got a little overexcited by this seasonal stuff - I'll be worse when i get a chance to take some pictures of Jill's divine veggie patch in a month or so. Then the whole world will see how rewarding it is for people who don't have a TV crew following them to reap the rewards of The Good Life!

Oooh ho I'd love to be Barbara for a month - but with a bit of Margo's decadence thrown in for good measure!

Tea! Tea! I was supposed to be talking about Afternoon tea! Goodness me I'd make a terrible Restaurant Critic! Please don't anyone agree with that!!!

I can't claim to have made 90% of what's in the pictures below, with the exception of about a dozen of the larger amateurly (is that a word?) piped pink cupcakes.

So, as this is already too long, I'll let the pictures speak for me apart from a few well-chosen-not-the-first-that-came-into-my-head-at-all-words...

Scrumptious - Delightful - British - downright gorgeous!

Not my highest quality photos I'm afraid - i think my camera is dying - Good news for Giles Coren; bad news for me...

ONE more thing - a person called Luigi has made my week! he is my first Follower and the first person to comment on my Blog! I am so utterly thrilled!

Thanks Luigi!!

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