Forever young!

We were away last week, staying in a wonderful 16th century manor house* in Somerset for a week of English folk dancing. It's an annual event organised by Mary, whose card I showed a couple of entries back, for some 40 dancers who come from various clubs in the south of England. We have dance workshops in the morning, investigate the local village pubs for lunch then walk off the excesses in the Quantock Hills or along the coast before returning to the manor for the evening dance. I do quite a lot of calling including a workshop of my own choreographed dances, but unfortunately this year I arrived with a cold and lost my voice completely on the second day; not only could I not call but I really wasn't well enough to dance very much either. However the surroundings are beautiful, the food excellent and the company of friends beyond measure!

One of those friends has a birthday on Wednesday and I made this card for him today. He is another very special person with a great sense of humour as well as being a fine dancer and caller and occasional choreographer. Despite now being in his 80s he is, like Mary, forever young....dancing definitely is beneficial! The picture of the wine cellar is actually a rub on transfer, mounted on a thin layer of cork and layered on red-brown card; words are by JustRite Stampers and the shape is from Blossoms #1 by Spellbinders.The greeting inside continues the theme - it says 'Happy birthday: we're not getting old, we're just beginning to ripen!'

ETA: It's now Wednesday morning and I've just had a call from Terry. He's delighted with the card, and highly amused by the sentiment!

*You can read about Halsway Manor here: http://www.halswaymanor.co.uk/