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May 9, 2025
Sublime Rambling
English epistle #13
March 19, 1998
By Vicki L. George
The Bandera Prophet
Hubby’s company let us go home for a week. We got our taxes paid and we were able to enjoy our kids and grandkids.
When we returned to England, Hubby had to work six days a week and 10 hours each day. So we had a lot less time for sight seeing.
However, we had some interesting socialization with people we had gotten to know.
Before we left for home, a sweet couple from the church we attended here invited us to their home for tea. We were able to do this the last Sunday before we left. Never having been invited to tea like that before, I had a few questions. The manager of this hotel is a young 37-year-old woman who has been very generous with all kinds of help and advice, so I asked her if there was anything I needed to know when going to someone’s home for tea so as not to embarrass ourselves or our hosts. She said we were really coming along, to get an invitation to tea. She told me that we’d know how we rated according to their procedure. If we were seated in the sitting room and the tea was served in the good china, we were definitely “in.” However, if we were taken to the kitchen and served tea in beakers (mugs), watch out! But she added that there was nothing special we needed to do except show up and behave ourselves in our normal fashion. Uh-oh!
So we showed up and found ourselves seated in the sitting room. Good beginning. A fire was started and we enjoyed some excellent conversation. Around 4:30, the lady of the house went to the kitchen and came back with a tray. On it were tea and biscuits (cookies), served with the good china. Lovely pink and white floral pattern on teapot, sugar bowl, cream pitcher, cups and saucers. A cute quilted teapot cover to keep the tea warm while we drank our first cup. Little cream-filled wafer-type biscuits. I guess you could say we now move in proper English society!
As to the conversation: Our hostess is a retired microbiologist; our host is also retired from the Royal equivalent of the agricultural department. While she stays home now, he does contract work much as Hubby does. He runs his own consulting service. His specialty is milk and dairy. People hire him to come tell them how to set up a dairy, set up milk processing plants, set up cheese plants, how to retail their milk and cheeses, etc.
He told us how Windsor dairy called him to inquire about retailing their milk. Windsor, as in the Queen! I didn’t even know the queen owned a dairy! But of course she does — the queen does not buy her milk from the local grocers! (Can’t you just see Queen Elizabeth picking up a plastic jug of milk down at the local Safeway?!)
So, he went there to check out the dairy. He said he expected a barn. What he saw was nothing short of amazing. The milking parlour was as big as his sitting room and dining room combined. It is completely tiled — floors, walls, ceiling, everything. The tile is decorative, with a border, about head high around all four walls, on which are silhouettes of all the royal children! In each corner is an ornate water fountain and they are kept flowing at all times to keep the humidity in the room just right. Of course, there is a manager and his assistant. And the queen inspects her dairy regularly.
He also mentioned that Her Majesty keeps a girl on staff who makes cottage cheese fresh daily as Her Highness must have fresh cottage cheese with her breakfast each morning. However, the queen is now making her annual sacrifice during Lent — for 40 days, no cottage cheese. (So, I wonder what the girl is doing now?)
Well, he told the royal staff what they’d need to do to comply with the laws to sell their milk to the public. Also, he told them about advertising and explained how to set up routes. Milk sold like that is sold door-to-door in England. That’s when the Duke of Edinburgh stepped in. The Duke is none other than Prince Phillip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth. He’s the Chairman of the royal committee to oversee such things. The Duke called a committee meeting with our host present. When all was explained, the Duke settled it with a single statement. He said that if the dairy manager became ill, and should the assistant manager also become ill, he really could not see himself driving a milk van on a route at that hour of the morning. That was the end of that! (Now, can’t you just see the Duke of Edinburgh, aka Prince Phillip, driving a milk truck?!)
Before we left their home, we were escorted on a complete tour. Their house is about 100 years old, Victorian in style, with two stories. They live on the ground floor and the top floor (what the British consider the first floor) is refurbished as a flat which they let. It’s been beautifully modernized and has a fantastic view of the harbour, bay, and St. Michael’s Mount, the castle.
We left with the promise to do it again. So, I guess we’re “in.”
When we returned to England, Hubby had to work six days a week and 10 hours each day. So we had a lot less time for sight seeing.
However, we had some interesting socialization with people we had gotten to know.
Before we left for home, a sweet couple from the church we attended here invited us to their home for tea. We were able to do this the last Sunday before we left. Never having been invited to tea like that before, I had a few questions. The manager of this hotel is a young 37-year-old woman who has been very generous with all kinds of help and advice, so I asked her if there was anything I needed to know when going to someone’s home for tea so as not to embarrass ourselves or our hosts. She said we were really coming along, to get an invitation to tea. She told me that we’d know how we rated according to their procedure. If we were seated in the sitting room and the tea was served in the good china, we were definitely “in.” However, if we were taken to the kitchen and served tea in beakers (mugs), watch out! But she added that there was nothing special we needed to do except show up and behave ourselves in our normal fashion. Uh-oh!
So we showed up and found ourselves seated in the sitting room. Good beginning. A fire was started and we enjoyed some excellent conversation. Around 4:30, the lady of the house went to the kitchen and came back with a tray. On it were tea and biscuits (cookies), served with the good china. Lovely pink and white floral pattern on teapot, sugar bowl, cream pitcher, cups and saucers. A cute quilted teapot cover to keep the tea warm while we drank our first cup. Little cream-filled wafer-type biscuits. I guess you could say we now move in proper English society!
As to the conversation: Our hostess is a retired microbiologist; our host is also retired from the Royal equivalent of the agricultural department. While she stays home now, he does contract work much as Hubby does. He runs his own consulting service. His specialty is milk and dairy. People hire him to come tell them how to set up a dairy, set up milk processing plants, set up cheese plants, how to retail their milk and cheeses, etc.
He told us how Windsor dairy called him to inquire about retailing their milk. Windsor, as in the Queen! I didn’t even know the queen owned a dairy! But of course she does — the queen does not buy her milk from the local grocers! (Can’t you just see Queen Elizabeth picking up a plastic jug of milk down at the local Safeway?!)
So, he went there to check out the dairy. He said he expected a barn. What he saw was nothing short of amazing. The milking parlour was as big as his sitting room and dining room combined. It is completely tiled — floors, walls, ceiling, everything. The tile is decorative, with a border, about head high around all four walls, on which are silhouettes of all the royal children! In each corner is an ornate water fountain and they are kept flowing at all times to keep the humidity in the room just right. Of course, there is a manager and his assistant. And the queen inspects her dairy regularly.
He also mentioned that Her Majesty keeps a girl on staff who makes cottage cheese fresh daily as Her Highness must have fresh cottage cheese with her breakfast each morning. However, the queen is now making her annual sacrifice during Lent — for 40 days, no cottage cheese. (So, I wonder what the girl is doing now?)
Well, he told the royal staff what they’d need to do to comply with the laws to sell their milk to the public. Also, he told them about advertising and explained how to set up routes. Milk sold like that is sold door-to-door in England. That’s when the Duke of Edinburgh stepped in. The Duke is none other than Prince Phillip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth. He’s the Chairman of the royal committee to oversee such things. The Duke called a committee meeting with our host present. When all was explained, the Duke settled it with a single statement. He said that if the dairy manager became ill, and should the assistant manager also become ill, he really could not see himself driving a milk van on a route at that hour of the morning. That was the end of that! (Now, can’t you just see the Duke of Edinburgh, aka Prince Phillip, driving a milk truck?!)
Before we left their home, we were escorted on a complete tour. Their house is about 100 years old, Victorian in style, with two stories. They live on the ground floor and the top floor (what the British consider the first floor) is refurbished as a flat which they let. It’s been beautifully modernized and has a fantastic view of the harbour, bay, and St. Michael’s Mount, the castle.
We left with the promise to do it again. So, I guess we’re “in.”