Barton Hall

I'm posting this a day late as we had a full on day, after a very late night on Friday!

Lorraine's actual birthday was today and a few friends and their parents arrived at 8.45am as we were going to the local farm for breakfast, so we had to be up early.  She cracked open the champagne, but I decided I'd stick with a Bucks Fizz seeing as it was so early, and then she opened some of her birthday presents.

There were 11 of us for breakfast which was lovely, Alan and I had Eggs Benedict which is our favourite and the farm restaurant has amazing views over the surrounding countryside, so it was a really nice setting.  From there we headed back to Lorraine's and everyone else went home until later in the afternoon.  Lorraine had an appointment at the hairdresser's so Alan and I nipped into Kettering as there was a gun shop that he wanted to look at.  The town centre was really quiet as I guess everyone was at home watching the Royal Wedding - we didn't miss out though as Lorraine recorded it and we watched it when we got back.  It was a beautiful wedding, Harry & Megan looked so happy and very much in love, and what a fantastic day weather wise!

At 2.15pm we headed back out to Barton Hall where we were invited to join her family for afternoon tea. It was a beautiful setting with gorgeous grounds, and there was a wedding there which had taken place in a beautiful conservatory which apparently used to be the old tennis pavillion.  It has three glass domes in the ceiling and glass opening doors to the front of it, so the light in there was amazing - I've added a couple of photos to my extras.

After our 'tea' we all headed back to Lorraine and Richard's for the evening where we had more cake and drinks, and as it was so hot, we stayed outside in the garden until about 9pm when everyone started to leave.  We should have been staying the night and leaving early in the morning, but as Alan hadn't been drinking I asked him what he thought about packing up and heading home.  He agreed as the roads would be quiet and whilst we'd get home late, it would mean that we have a full day at home on Sunday.  So I went to speak to Lorraine and asked if she'd mind, and of course she didn't, so we left at 10.15pm. I slept all the way home and we were back in 2.5 hours as opposed to the 4 hours going.  By the time we'd unpacked the car and got to bed though it was 2am, but it was nice to be back and know that we can have a lie in, in the morning.