Tag: Thomas Hardy
Hardy Country – wistful wedding
Some weddings are simply beautiful! When we saw these fabulous pics by photographer Alistair Freeman back from Caroline and Mark’s country wedding we were immediately transported into a Hardy novel with Caroline in lead role as Tess of the D’Urberville’s!
All images are copyright – please do not copy or use without permission
With rolling countryside just outside the door the Wellington Barn on the Dorset Wiltshire border always promised scenery that was always going to be perfect – but Caroline’s gorgeous lace trimmed vintage styled dress, cottage flowers and beautifully tendrilled hair really embraced the wistful feel of a literary heroine.
Quite appropriate really as Caroline is a fabulous blogger with her Wandering Starrs blog hosting lots of gorgeous images and stories of travels and stay at home discoveries!
This wedding features lots of handmade and rustic elements including a chalk-board menu, bunting garlands, beautiful cottage flowers from Organic Blooms, a gorgeous traditional “courting cake” style wedding cake, ribbons, rustic boxes, tea favours, wire hearts and lashings of country charm. You can’t fail to be entranced by the scenes captured by the talented Allister Freeman Photography – these images are breathtaking!
Of course we had to save a little chuckle for this snap – our vintage china is there to be adored on the top, bottom and sideways! We love a good china inspection – its a great way to get people remembering great aunties and grandma’s tea sets…. I think we passed muster!
Ten Poems about Tea Competition
Some of my favourite things in life are poems and tea.
So when they were brought together in this cute pamphlet by Picador poet Lorraine Mariner, I couldn’t resist buying myself a copy and offering this great little booklet of poems as a prize for Vintage Dorset enthusiasts.
Ten Poems about Tea is introduced by Sophie Dahl (PG tips (!) with milk, no sugar) and is published by the Candlestick Press costing just £4.95 + P&P.
The cover of the pamphlet includes another of our favourites – the ever indulgent Dundee Cake. The ten poems about tea are collected to perfectly complement your tea-time. Ideal for an everyday crisis or when ‘everything stops for tea’.
The Collection includes:
Thomas Hardy, At Tea Kenny Knight, Lessons in Teamaking Eavan Boland, In Season Jo Shapcott, Procedure John Arlott, Tea with my Aunts Carol Ann Duffy, Tea John Betjeman, In a Bath Teashop Sheila Hackney, Tea Party John Agard, Alternative Anthem Tiffany Atkinson, TeaTO ENTER – please leave us a comment below as to why you find tea and especially vintage tea an inspiration. We’ll choose the best one at the end of the month to send a free copy of Ten Poems About Tea.
At Tea by Thomas Hardy
THE kettle descants in a cosy drone,
And the young wife looks in her husband’s face,
And then in her guest’s, and shows in her own
Her sense that she fills an envied place;
And the visiting lady is all abloom,
And says there was never so sweet a room.
And the happy young housewife does not know
That the woman beside her was his first choice,
Till the fates ordained it could not be so….
Betraying nothing in look or voice
The guest sits smiling and sips her tea,
And he throws her a stray glance yearningly.