I've Been To A Marvellous Party

It may not have had quite the Press pull of the party held earlier this week a mere 10 miles away, but I am sure it was a more entertaining event, and the invitation list certainly did not include the dodgy characters that the 'other' garden party had to contend with.

Advertised as an evening of food, friends and garden games, that is certainly what it was.

We started with 'Smash the Glass' followed swiftly by 'Hunt the Shard', games that I invented as I was greeted by our host!

The hit of the evening was outdoor 'Jenga', which started before we arrived and was still going strong when we left, about 5 hours later. We tried a few variations on the rules, including one round of 'Cheat Jenga', but we decided that the original version was by far the best.

There was also a large Draughts Board, a game that I have never managed to get my head around, but a few games were played and enjoyed.

There was also 'Lawn Darts', which I think was our host's way of getting his lawn aerated, and Croquet, which was not played until after sunset, hence no photos.

As well as the games, there were other objects that called to me to photograph, including our hostess's new lace top, she had not realised how pretty it was from the back until I had taken this photo:

Inside there were some other objects that needed to be photographed, some just a bit quirkier than others.

Are you attending any Garden Parties this year? Do let me know what you are up to.

And for those interested in the history of the title of this post; written by Noel Coward for the New York Edition of Words and Music, Set to Music (1938) and sung by Beatrice Lillie, one of Coward's sublime parodies of the hedonistic international cafe society he inhabited. The indefatigable society hostess Elsa Maxwell had invited Noel to 'an informal beach party' that summer - 'just come as you are'. When he arrived he found a hundred revellers 'in the last stages of evening dress' expecting to be entertained by him!! Here is a really fun version (although some of the video my not be for younger eyes!), recorded by The Divine Comedy for Twentieth Century Blues in 1998; this album, one of my favourites, raised money for The Red Hot AIDS Charitable Trust.