From one to one hundred.

Just the other week we were celebrating the first birthday of our grandson, but yesterday our invitation was to a mad hatter's tea party to celebrate a one hundredth birthday.

There were many cards, including one from the queen.

Photos of the birthday boy at different stages in his long life.

The sun shone

and we could wander around the garden.

Goldney House is situated on Clifton Hill in Bristol. In the late seventeenth century Thomas Goldney the second,  the son of a successful Quaker grocer, leased a house and garden in Clifton, which was then a small village separate from the city. He developed the house and gardens and created a grotto which he decorated with shells, quartz and a rock crystal known as 'Bristol diamonds'. There was no chance to look inside the grotto, it was securely locked.

The handsome red sandstone tower was built in 1764 to house the steam engine supplying water to the grotto.

The property passed through various members of the family and in 1864 was bought by Lewis Fry, a member of the famous Quaker chocolate manufacturing family who remodelled the house and the pleasure grounds.

The chocolate birthday cake tasted just as good as it looked!

The tea party was served in the orangery with heart-warming speeches from family and friends, 

poetry 

and music.

What a perfect way to celebrate one hundred years!