Downton Abbey Garden Party

Don’t you love it when other people are just as obsessed with a certain TV show as you? Sometimes my obsession level can be hard to match as I am the type to go full throttle, but this time, I was not alone.

Downton Abbey has been a favourite since I broke my ankle and was forced to spend endless hours on the couch with my leg elevated. I binge watched the first two seasons, and then watched them again. Joe would hear the theme music and groan. He’s no quite the fan I am. 😉

As kind of a gag, I bought the Downton Abbey cookbook for my bestie and fellow Downton enthusiast, Julie. That led us to her childhood family friend, Andrea, who also loves the show and also had the cookbook. Then, through an amazing set of circumstances, we were joined by Karen in our love of all things Downton. I found Karen through her blog, Toronto Girl West.

Way back when I was thinking of starting my own blog, Karen’s was one of the first that I read. I had done a search for ‘Toronto bloggers’ and it led me to Karen’s. Our stories were almost reversed with Karen moving from Toronto to Vancouver and me coming from Victoria, eastward. We both found love and remained in our new cities. Then, as the stars would have it, Julie’s childhood family friend Andrea (who blogs as well ), was Karen’s friend also! Can we all say ‘small world’ together? 🙂

This twist of fate turned into a full blown plan to all get together, in the most civilized of ways. A proper Downton Abbey garden party. It was promptly pencilled into the itinerary for my trip.

Julie and her hubby generously offered their picture perfect back garden as the setting. Her daughter, Vanessa added the finishing touches by arranging a bowl of fresh picked flowers for our linen covered table.

It was like the sun came out just for us. The weather was perfection.

Andrea arrived with a Raspberry Meringue Pie. The recipe was direct from the cookbook and looked ah-mazing.

I happily shot photos and it was a good thing I did. This pie did. not. last. Someone, perhaps me, scraped every last bit from the pie plate.

We all were in for theme dressing and the costumes were fabulous with Jenny and Stew winning best dressed couple. They legit looked like they stepped right out of the Great Gatsby.

Karen was the most glamorous with her 1920’s flapper inspired ensemble. The head piece was killer.

Vanessa set the mood for us with tunes from the twenties  lightly playing in the background. Ironically, the neighbours were also having a backyard party the same afternoon. I peeked out the window to check out their soiree. Imagine burley looking, bearded men, drinking cans of beer and you’d be close to seeing what I saw. The side by side parties could not have been more different. I wonder if they snuck a look at us? I’ll bet they were surprised if they did! 🙂

We laughed, shared stories, and laughed some more. It was a grand time. When the evening was winding down, we enjoyed hot tea poured into tiny teacups with matching saucers. I even think I saw a pinky or two in the air. Carson and Mrs. Hughes would be proud!