Afternoon tea

BH was slated to have tea somewhere grand with her two sons to mark her 70th birthday. Tea which was, on advice, postponed and replaced by a Devon cream tea hamper at home. Or to be more precise, a sturdy cardboard box, better suited to today's delivery arrangements.

A cleverly packed affair with a country design on the box involving, rather incongruously to my mind, a couple of buzzards circling in the distance. Not the sort of birds I would have associated with afternoon tea, even in Devon, where they are reasonably common.

The clotted cream part of the tea came in a plastic tub, might have been frozen at the time of despatch and was wrapped up in various insulating materials. Eight ounces of the stuff for four scones; yellow crust on top, thick and creamy underneath. Rather good.

Strawberry jam which, unusually, involved more strawberries than sugar.

The scones were described as a cunning hybrid between an English sweet scone and a Devon split, this last being a more bread like, yeast rising recipe. Whatever the case, they had done us well - as to my mind sweet scones are tricky things to deliver in a café or restaurant, being all too likely to arrive at the table stale or crumbly.

Plus substantial biscuits, a modest supply of chocolates and two kinds of tea. The chocolates were held over for today, BH took Earl Grey with milk and I took Earl Grey with lemon, having previously taken enough tea with milk for one day.

Not quite the same as somewhere grand, but a pretty fair substitute in the circumstances. Arranged at rather short notice too.