Scones on the Beach

We took a little trip to the Devon coast recently to visit our English aunts, uncles and cousins. They had planned the best day out ever: a picnic on the beach. It wasn’t exactly warm, but that didn’t stop most of them going for a dip in the ocean—including my husband and daughter. I stayed on shore to guard the beach hut. The beach was lined with these adorable little houses and Aunt Sarah had stocked this one with picnic food: pies, olives, potato chips, salads, wine, cake. And a kettle for making tea. Hot tea. At the beach. When we arrived around 11:00 in the morning, and took the walk from the parking lot to our family’s hut, we passed dozens of English families sitting on blankets and around picnic tables, eating scones with cream and jam and drinking tea. If it hadn’t been so sunny, it would have been the single most English scene I’d ever encountered.