Ruby Anniversary

We, or rather I, had booked a champagne afternoon tea to celebrate our anniversary. It was at somewhere relatively posh ie this place,  Rufflets  They could only offer us a 2.30 time slot which is a bit early for tea but we decided we could skip lunch. It's also an awkward sort of time for doing anything very much in the morning especially as it was about 30 miles from where we were staying so we decided we would have an easy morning exploring the 8 acres of grounds which our accommodation boasted. 

I've found previously that acres are not as big as you think they are but we had a pleasant time wandering around the gardens and the small woodland. There was also a ruined castle that you weren't  allowed to go near to, but obviously near enough to take pictures. 

We came across the property owner in our wanderings and had a brief chat with him. During the course of this we mentioned that we should have be in Australia and I expressed the opinion that there was probably nowhere in the world worth going to if, by doing so, you ran the risk of dying. 'Well apart from Afghanistan' he said. That wasn't a conversation I particularly wanted to carry on since our opinions of British military involvement in various paces in the world seemed unlikely to coincide so we left it at that. 

I was intersted to see how the tea lived up to our previous experience of posh tea at Gleneagles, which I blogged about at the time. Tobe fair to Rufflets they were struggling with the exigencies of Covid winch Gleneages at the time of our visit wasn't, so the comparison isn't totally fair.  Rufflets scored on music (there wasn't any) and speed of service. Gleneagles won on temperature (Ruffllets was freezing) and atmosphere, since, due to social distancing, tea this time was served in a huge function room with about six tables, very widely spaced,  in it. As for the food there wasn't much in it; for what it's worth I preferred Rufflets scones, but their sandwiches had only too obviously been just that moment before serving been taken out of a chiller cabinet. So overall Gleneagles edged it, but might not have in  normal times. 

Here's a picture of what we got. 

and we had a fun time  reminiscing, mainly about holidays and opera performances. As you do.