An Enchanting Day

A chance encounter with Twig, the wandering fairy the moment we stepped inside the gates. Two little princesses listened in awe to her sweet fairy pipes and held out thier hands for a shiny green fairy stone.

Robin flew in the rigging like a first-rate pirate.

A break for lunch - giant roasted turkey legs, broccoli & cheese soup served in a boule, shepherds pie, onion pasty. We picnicked on the grass under the shade of the trees, soft breeze blowing, sounds of pipes and flutes and harp drifting through the air.

Jesse & Lucy relaxing in the dappled light of the warm spring sun.

Jill, with friends Katie and Barry, enjoying the merriment and adding plenty of thier own.

It was a beautiful, warm spring day. The boys left tunics and tabards at home and stayed cool in their billowy linen shirtsleeves, the girls in drifting silk and linen skirts, hair in braids or blowing in the cool breeze. We watched tight-rope walkers, jugglers and acrobats, a phantom playing the clarion bells, blacksmiths and glass blowers and a very convincing hypnotist; shopped for scented bath salts and gypsy scarves, wooden swords and dragon puppets; ate strawberry Italian ice, a huge roasted turkey leg, broccoli and cheese soup served in a bread boule; sipped blood orange Italian soda with cream, and finished the day sitting on the grass under a tree, listening to bagpipes and drums and nibbling on strawberry pastries and cinnamon buns. It was a moment spent back in time in an idealized world of magic and romance, beauty and art. Yes, a very enchanting day indeed!