VE Day becomes VA Day

This week I am joining in with Donna over at Brynwood Needlework for her first ever Memory Lane Monday. I am also hoping to link with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for her Tablescape Thursday this week.

I hope Donna will forgive me for stretching the rules a little bit as this post is not about one of my memories but a celebration of my dad's.

My dad was 80 yesterday and we had a family lunch in celebration.

This is a photo of the real VE Day celebrations in his street. My dad can be found at the end of the arrow!

Dad has often said the war years were the happiest of his life. He went from living in a flat in Tottenham to being evacuated to Norfolk, living with an elderly couple who taught him the ways of the countryside and fed him with home-caught, home-grown food. He learned to catch rabbits, make music with a blade of grass and to hang around the nearby American airbase in the hope of some gum!

Keeping this in mind, I decided (at the last minute unfortunately) to have a VE Day type celebration for his 80th birthday. As his initials are V.A. I decided to change it from VE Day to VA Day:

The idea only came to me on Saturday afternoon, so it turned out to be a real wartime 'make do and mend' decorated theme. Red and blue napkins were found and arranged on top of white table mats and tablecloth.

Would you believe I had red and blue fabric left over from making my son a quilt about ten years ago? I used it (and an old white bedsheet) to make bunting:

The Union Jacks were printed from the internet and stuck onto chopsticks. Here are a couple stuck in an old milk bottle we found in the attic:

I brought my Nan's old radio down from the attic as well. I think this is a 50's radio rather than a war-time one, but you can't have everything!

The food I kept to traditional English. Pea Soup, called 'London Particular', Roast Beef with all the trimmings followed by jam roly-poly and custard (Gary Rhodes has wonderful recipes for the pea soup and the roly-poly). Just the kind of nostalgic food my dad loves.

Here he is blowing the candles out on the roly-poly!

So Donna I hope you will forgive me for changing the rules slightly. I wanted to acknowledge my dad reaching the grand age of 80 and letting you all see the wonderful photo of the real VE Day.

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y, D A D!

Blessings,

Andi xx