Monday was a Bank Holiday in the UK and, as tradition dictates, it was a cold, although unusually, dry day. Lunch in the garden had to be re-scheduled in the kitchen.
The place mats are a present from my sister; she bought them from the Irish Georgian Society. Another friend is a good present-giver but we will return to her anon.
The table mats are of birds and flowers by Samuel Dixon, done in the mid 18th century in a style he called ‘basso relievo’, a technique he claimed to have invented. They were a runaway success but, to be on the safe side, he dedicated each one to a lady of the peerage with a rich husband.
No, I don’t know what a cock-butcher bird is either, except that it makes me feel somewhat uneasy in parts south of the waistband. If you take another look at the Monday lunch table you will notice smoked glass water glasses, a present from the good present-giver alluded to above. You may also notice the side plates; part of a twelve piece dinner service she commissioned to mark my 65th birthday. Sensibly she syndicated this amongst the friends that came to her house in France for the birthday party she gave. Although Monday was the first time it had been used, a few days previously a friend noticed the plates and remarked – ‘I suppose you inherited them’. That is a great compliment.
It only remains to sing “you’ve made me so happy”.