ENGLAND 2018: The Croome Court Shutterchance Meetup

Most of you know that Astrid and I have made trips to England every year, or every other year, since we first met each other on our Shutterchance photoblog in 2007.  Because the blog is based in England (with members worldwide), we have gotten to know many English friends, in particular, over the past years.

We LOVE our meetups!

However, this year, because Astrid's "Big Bro" celebrated his 70th birthday on 3 September, a meetup being planned for the past two years, we had a challenge.  Unbeknownst to us back then, our Hailey g'daughter's due date was also 3 September.  Talk about WHAT DO WE DO NOW!

Long back-story short...we all agreed that we should go ahead with our plans (tickets already bought) and just hope Hailey would not arrive on time.  She didn't!  We returned on the 4th and she was born on the 12th.  YAY.

So, THIS is that day, the 3rd, when 27 of us (18 members with spouses/friends) met at Croome Court for a grand meetup.

 The directive was to meet at the cafe at noon, which many of us did, inside...

...while others hung around outside the cafe...

...before we all headed out in different directions.

We had the rest of the afternoon to bump into each while walking the grounds,

before meeting back outside the cafe later for the birthday party.

Before getting to the actual Court, we passed the St. Mary Madalene Church 

at the top of the hill, built in 1763 for the Earl of Coventry.

She has so many faces from all over the fields.

Inside, it was basically bare except for the tombs of the Coventry family...

...whose hands tell many stories, "if these walls could talk."

Many of us congregated outside the church before heading down the hill to the Court.

Croome Court...as viewed across the ramblings fields!
It's a mid-18th century mansion inherited by the 6th Earl of Coventry in 1751.

The paved path winding down the hill took us past the tree house.

"I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree." 

--Joyce Kilmer

Once inside the basically unfurnished house, we all wound our way around,

upstairs and downstairs, bumping into each other along the way.

It really was a "meetup," you know.

A few of us walked around the house outside, to see the south portico with its sphinxes.

Looking back on it now, I see Hailey in this image, not knowing then

that she'd go through hell and high water in her first week of birth.

YOU GO, GIRL.

More congregating, this time outside the Court.

(A BTW:  the top-right couple is the other couple that met and married because of Shutterchance,

like Astrid and me.  He's English, she's American, living in Arizona.)

Can you tell we're all photographers???

It was time to head back to the cafe, making a loop around the fields, past the church again...

...to the birthday party at 4 p.m.

The Birthday Boy is Chris, celebrating his 70th year.

The cake-maker extraordinaire is Penny (top-right),

who made the design to match his famous shirt, about which many jokes are made.

(Penny even printed out a photo of the shirt to show the match.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHRIS.

We all had a fabulous time, as always!

Our next big meetup will be two years from now, when I turn 75.  Hmmm.

Speaking of "matching," I'm not sure I would want to match anything close to this!  HA!