A visit to the Orangery!

On Wednesday I took a good friend to Kensington Palace Orangery for lunch!  Not somewhere I go often!!  In fact I have only been once before and was taken by a lovely friend for afternoon tea.  It is a lovely spacious environment and all food is made on the premises using organic or locally produced ingredients and they actually serve the first ever English grown tea from Cornwall called Tregothan.  After a delicious lunch - quiche and salad for me and chicken and salad for my friend, we set off with our two for one voucher to Kensington Palace.  Lots to see there and a new exhibition on English debutantes of the 1950's.  The state apartments are delightful and my photos certainly don't do it justice at all.  Did you know that a very young Queen Victoria was told she would be the next Queen as she woke up one morning in Kensington Palace.  Here is the bed she would have slept in:

Here are some other rooms and special things in the Palace:

Of course many of the rooms were shaded or in low light to protect the furnishings.  One room of great interest was the sewing room where intricate lace and beading would have been stitched for all the special dresses and garments worn by the monarchy.

Outside the sun was shining and the gardens were looking very pretty indeed:

All in all it was a lovely day with lots to see and lots to chat about.  If you fancy a day out in London this is definitely worth a look and with a two for one offer from one of the days out websites it is really quite reasonable.

Easter outings

So how was your Easter?  We had a lovely time with our guests and family members.  My mother-in-law will be 83 this month but is pretty good shape although less mobile than she has been.  We wanted to take her and her friend out into the Kent countryside so we made a visit to Lullingstone Country Park.  Although it looks a little grey here it did brighten up and a wander into the World Garden along a path strewn with flowers in bright colours was very jolly.  We even took a riverside walk (complete with wheelchair!).

We had tea and cake outside with the sun on our backs and then pottered around the nursery where a little violet plant was purchased for me.  It was a very happy day.

Another day we made a visit to a delightful garden centre where I was able to spend the plant token I got for my birthday.  I bought a Bottle Brush shrub - a photo of that another time but it actually has a flower (mine is bright red) which looks exactly like a bottle brush and very cute.

Easter Sunday was a special lunch for 8 followed by tea in bone china cups, hot cross buns and chocolate Easter cake (very similar to the one I made last year I discovered from looking back at the blog!!) but I wasn't able to take any photos as I was chief cook and bottle-washer and it is very difficult to do all the hosting and take the photos.  I realise now that I should have delegated the photography to a daughter but alas I didn't think of it at the time!