Last of the Summer Wine? (and a Wedding...)

We saw this Rabbit In The Sky near a town called Montefrio in Southern Spain in the days before COVID became a thing and since we're basking in a wedding sort of bliss we thought we'd share it with you as a reminder that the world is still out there even if we can't quite get to all of it just yet... We will and so will you.

If we've been a bit quiet of late - forgive us but we haven't wanted to interrupt whatever you decided to do with your August...  However, it's the same very year, the whole summer sprawled out ahead of us, then, before we know it, the end of August is here and September is upon us. Maybe it's looking forward to the Bank Holiday that does it, certainly squeezing last year's Olympics and Euros in has helped the last 8 weeks fly by but, suddenly, we find ourselves right here - still summer, just at the start of September.

And what a start to September it's been.  Yesterday we went to the long planned and Covid delayed wedding of one of our extended family and I have to say it was the most relaxed, informal, enjoyable and perfectly executed celebration I have ever been to. Bar none. 

The happy couple had decided to wed in a very special place - all outdoors and in the middle of a very old wood. Everything from the perfectly chosen individual rainbow coloured dresses of the Bridesmaids, to the Groom and Groomsmen dressed in green velvet jackets and waistcoats redolent of woodsmen of old, to the perfectly pitched ceremony and handfasting beneath sun dappled beeches, the picnic in the fairy-light lit Tipi decked out in painstakingly and hugely laboriously handmade rainbow rag bunting there was not a detail out of place or not thought of.  This indeed was a mission of creative planning and execution that left us all in awe of the sheer time and effort it took to realise their dream wedding and one which we shall all remember for a lifetime and beyond.

And it struck me. Perfection is not an easy thing to achieve - we know it when we see it but rarely do we consider the herculean task the achievement and realisation of perfection is to bring to bear. It has long been a pursuit of ours but we pale in comparison to the event we witnessed and were a joyous part of. This maybe one of the last of the Summer Weddings but it was surely one of the finest I have ever been privileged enough to be part of.  All I can do is to raise my hat and try and learn from witnessing a mastery in the artform that was perfection personified.

Loaf & Larder is a work in progress (as are we).  Perfection is an aspiration and, by small steps, we try and improve. If you haven't noticed, we launched a new look Loaf & Larder website back in early August but didn't say a word as we wanted to make sure the new look worked.  So far it's been greeted by rapturous silence which I take, funnily enough, as a good thing as it means it still works - just a little better than before!

As for this being the last of the Sumer Wine - far from it - there's still plenty to go around... We're raising another glass to the Happy Couple...