l recently popped back home for a week so that I could celebrate my wonderful grandma's 90th birthday, along with all the family. It was so wonderful to spend a week with my mum, brother and niece and then end the week with a party with 35 others to celebrate grandma's 90th.
On all my recent trips abroad, I've had some kind of fragile sugar pieces in my luggage and this was no exception, I had a bright fuschia peony, which I was delighted to find made it all the way home in one piece with only one petal damaged.
We practiced all week singing 'Happy birthday great grandma' with Poppy, and she sang the loudest of everyone! Maybe partly because she had been patiently waiting for several days to eat the birthday cake!
The cake was a dense chocolate mud cake with a marscapone whipped cream and whipped milk chocolate mocha ganache, as I know grandma likes tiramisu, so I used that as inspiration. I was very honored when the event manager grabbed me to let me know that it was the best cake he'd ever had!!
After the candles were blown out, each of the grandchildren read out a verse of a fantastic ode that my cousin wrote.
When Violet Joyce Griffiths was born
her name caused a family storm
With a grandmother’s outburst,
Violet came first
But everyone knows “Joyce” is the norm
An education she set out to get
Being female was not a great bet
Evacuated to Wales, but hard work prevails
She got her degree and off she set
To Africa young Joyce did go
Researching nutrition and farming you know
Then back at home, in her field she became known
The title world expert they did bestow
She has always been an adventurer
Len wooed her out in the Gambia
In their caravan home, through Europe they roamed
With every passing year they grew happier
With three daughters the Doughty family starts
Her sense of adventure to us she imparts
Now four generations, there’s big celebrations
Her love of life is in all of our hearts
She retired then life really got going
Her interests and talents ever growing
Wood carving art, Scottish dancing apart
Too many to keep this verse flowing
For a better role model we couldn’t have dreamed
She’s broken barriers, she’s the feminist supreme
What it’s possible to achieve, if in yourself you believe
We’re so lucky to share her great genes
I wanted to say a big thank you to Jaqueline from Petalsweet Cakes, it was so wonderful to try using one of the peonies I learned to make with her. I'd encourage anyone to take a class with her, she is so serene and well organized, it is a very relaxing way to spend a couple of days.
5 comments:
You are getting to be brilliant with those flowers! And I love the color against the chocolate!
Sounds like a very special birthday celebration! What a nice ode that was written - she must've loved it!
hi jw - what a lovely peony! and such a great milestone to celebrate as well. that's great that your grandmother has had such a long life!
Love the flower and the cake, the combination of the brown and pink are great.
My Great-Aunt was named Violet, and her daughter is Joyce, so that's a coincidence!
Love the combination of the pink and the brown, very nice colors.
My Great-Aunt was named Violet, and her daughter is Joyce, so that's a coincidence!
Post a Comment