My birthday treat. We were hesitant to book this when it was
first advertised in April as an outdoor anything in England in June can be
bikinis or so ‘esters, but we braved it and were duly rewarded.
The venue was fairly spectacularly unbeatable in a
pleasantly low key way. The lawn to the side of Osborne house, Queen Victoria’s
summer location of choice, was bathed in summer sunshine but still green from
the endless rains of winter. Looking
back towards to mainland the landscaping framed a view across the Solent
towards Portsmouth. Much as I,
mostly, like Portsmouth I have to admit she looks her best from this
vantage point.
We arrived about an hour before the performance commenced
and picnic’d in baking sunshine for an hour. Sadly I don’t have any photos of the company
in action but I am certain that it wouldn’t do them justice anyway. Pre
performance announcements banned photos and mobile, forcing everyone to just
have the opportunity to focus on the performance. It worked, we did!
Non performance related highlights involved hitting someone
in the head with our champagne cork, but thankfully causing no injuries,
although it did look like it could turn into cork wars for a heated moment. No
low lights other than having to carry chairs and picnics from the car park but
it allowed us to feel virtuous about eating our picnics to keep up our
strengths. Also, having the luggage put us off strolling around the grounds in
the later afternoon sun.
Happy Birthday to me!
It looks like fun! Sunny castle lawns are so much nicer than dreary, rainy castle lawns. Would they have cancelled if it had rained or moved it inside?
ReplyDeleteI believe light rain would have been business as usual, very heavy rain would have been cancellation/ About the only thing we didnt imagine was actual proper summer sunshine!
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