26th March
The day before Violet-Elizabeth’s 13th birthday. The birthday cake was iced, the racks of ribs were marinating in BBQ sauce, the bucket loads of chicken dippers were residing in the fridge and the 2kg bag of potato wedges were firmly ensconced in the freezer. Enter 5 (soon to be teenage) girls for a sleepover. Result all food gone and none left for Spencer, Marcus and myself who were hanging off out of site in the Manor kitchen. However I did feel rather pleased to be told that “my ribs were the best ever!”
27th March
The day itself! After much giggling, 5 girls crept up the stairs and sneaked into Marcus’s bedroom, and removed his covers whilst he was still asleep. As Spencer said to him afterwards, with a wry smile, it is not every day that you get woken up by five girls in your room wearing only pyjamas!
After the under estimating of the quantities of food required at dinner last night and the arrival of three more girls, I was confident that 3 large Dominos pizzas from Chineham together with 24 slices of garlic bread and another truck load of wedges followed by 3 pints of jelly (of different colours) and 2 litres of ice cream would do the trick for lunch. How wrong can you be? I was forced to cook a further two pizzas from the depleted Manor freezer and these too were demolished without as much as a crumb for Spencer and Marcus who were again waiting patiently in the kitchen. We made do with a cheese sandwich before the main event of the day which was a visit by Lisa from Simply Elegant who painted the girls nails, and did a makeover for each of them. All were quite thrilled with the results and when they all disappeared at 6pm, after sausage rolls, chicken skewers, battered prawns and a mountain of cup cakes, Spencer and I sat down with a large glass of wine and a sigh of relief.
28th March
We had planned for a quiet day today after the excitement of the two previous days, and spent time in the Manor gardens. I sowed my winning African marigolds, Asters and Penstemon for the Village Show, and also put Spencer’s mind toward the purchasing of a raised bed kit for the kitchen garden, which he did from the internet.