Woolf, Forster, Brooke, and Tea

Some time ago we biked over to a little place called Grantchester to have cream tea at The Orchard, a restaurant with tables in, you guessed it, an orchard.  Rupert Brooke held court here from 1909 to 1914, and many friends visited, like Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Augustus John, and Keynes.  They went on walking tours and canoed along the River Cam into Cambridge.  They were known as the Grantchester Group (Woolf called this gang the "Neo Pagans," contrasting them from London's Bloomsbury Group).  Here are other esteemed visitors to The Orchard:

Pretending we're pioneering early-20th-century intellects:

 

A swan, named either Norbert or Charon.

Lazing by the river with our former group babysitter Ingrida (our lovely TF Myrna has since arrived to fill that role, as well as academic supporter!) and her Portuguese friend Evo.

A bit of poetry to close out a lovely day, with piping hot scones and the smoothest clotted cream ever.  I had elderflower soda and was happy with the world.

"The Old Vicarage, Grantchester" by Rupert Brooke

(excerpt)

I only know that you may lie

Day-long and watch the Cambridge sky, And, flower- lulled in sleepy grass,

Hear the cool lapse of hours pass,

Until the centuries blend and blur

In Grantchester, in Grantchester...