Afternoon Tea gives you a great chance to treat a friend or family member to an Afternoon Tea out.  

There are a huge number of Afternoon Tea experiences, which you can enjoy with or without a glass of bubbly or gin, depending on what you want to do and how much you want to spend.  Chatting over a cup of something hot whilst indulging in lovely delicious and mouth-watering goodies is a great way to spend time with a loved one - and you don't have to worry about all the preparation, cooking and washing up!!

Gift experience company BuyaGift has some great offers on and lots of wonderful opportunities to have an Afternoon Tea Experience, so although these aren't memberships, I thought I'd give you an idea of what some of them are. 

You can enjoy a 10% discount with BuyaGift across their site - including special offers and 2 for 1s, until 31 December 2025 with the code AHW2025BAG  (although some products are exempt from this offer.)

There's a Luxury Afternoon Tea for Two Gift Voucher UK-Wide
It was £65 and is now £59.99
There are lots of locations to choose from, 
and champagne is available at some of them. 
Use the code AHW2025BAG to get 10% off!**

There's an offer on Afternoon Tea at Patisserie Valerie for Two.
It was £39.95 and is now available for £35.00
There are a number of locations available.  
Tuck into savoury sandwiches, sweet treats, 
fluffy scones with jam and cream - and of course, tea!
Use the code AHW2025BAG to get 10% off!**

There's also on offer on Afternoon Tea with a Bottle of Fizz for Two at Veeno
It was £82, and is now £75.
There are 8 locations available.
Tuck into a gorgeous Italian afternoon tea, with a selection of 
Foccacia, meats and cheese, chocolate cake, lemon cake
and scones with mascarpone and strawberry jam!
All washed down with a bottle of fizz to share....
Use the code AHW2025BAG to get 10% off before 31.12.25**

There's also an Afternoon Tea Experience Box 
for £35.00.  It isn't on offer but there are a great many venues to choose from!
Find out more here...
Use the code AHW2025BAG to get 10% off before 31.12.25

See other Afternoon Tea options available from BuyaGift

The code AHW2025BAG is site wide, including special offers and 2 for 1s,
although some products are excluded from it.  It expires 31.12.25 

When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is to make myself some Twinnings Earl Grey Tea.   I've got a fine bone china mug I love to drink it from (so pretty, from Dunoon) - a friend and I were talking about our morning Twinnings tea and we both agreed you have to drink it out of a fine bone china mug!

Twinnings are known for their teas, and they have an incredible range of flavours to choose from.  They've got teas to see you through the day, from English Breakfast to your afternoon tea, and then something to see you off to sleep in the evening zzzzz

They've also got Wellbeing teas, for sleep, unwind, digestive health, feel good, good energy, pause and unwind and more.  

And they've got Matcha tea - and in case you haven't tried that before, they've got a Matcha Starter Kit  with everything you need to start making delicious Matcha beverages!  

There's a Twinnings Matcha Starter Kit Gift Box for £28.00

And as you can imagine, they've got lots of biscuits & confectionary, fudge, marmelades and prseserves, and plenty of tableware - mugs, KeekpCups and tea accessories. 

They've also got gift hampers, Twinnings Collection Selection Boxes, Christmas confectionery, Christmas boxed gift sets and Christmas Advent calendars. 

This is the Monty Bojangles Truffle Collection Tube - yummy!
£8.49

This is the Peace on Earth Gift Box for £23.00

Their ranges give you a great chance to try out different teas, so they're great for anyone who loves trying different tastes, and they've even got a Tea Masterclass in their flagship store in the Strand in London,  so you can buy a loved one a voucher for that (£45.00).   

Visit Twinnings here

Whipsnade Zoo had a very important arrival back on the 2nd October this year.  

The world welcomed little Khulu, a southern white rhino calf.   His mum is called Fahari, and both rhinos are doing well! 

Khulu is loving his time outside, especially having a good wallow...

Khulu has just started to venture out of his cosy den, which is indoors - but he's delighted to have discovered the muddy wallows in the paddock, and he's taken the opportunity to get down and dirty there!  He's got 21 acres to explore, so no doubt he'll find more wallows to enjoy! 

Khulu is a Zulu word.  It means both small and great or significant - and Khulu is a very significant rhino indeed!   There are just 17,500 southern white rhinos left in the wild, so if we take the phrase of the astronaut Neil Armstrong and alter it a bit, you could say this is one step for man, one giant leap for mankind, we could change it slightly to one step for Khulu, one giant leap for southern white rhinos. Every rhino matters! 

Khulu will be joining the European breeding programme, and this is important because it helps create agenetically diverse and healthy back up population.  

Find out more about the rhinos at Whipsnade here.  

There's plenty going on at Whispnade this Christmas, by the way, from 23rd November to 6th January,  including the opportunity to Meet Santa, and weekly walks with different themes from the 7th November to the 19th December.  And of course, there are all the animals to see!!  And if you're looking for a gift for an animal lover, there are gift experiences, tickets to buy so your loved ones can visit, gift memberships of course, and the online shop!  

You could also donate a Festive Dinner to the animals, from £5.00 - it depends if you want to go for a starter, a main course or a dessert - or go for all three!  Find out more here. 

Head off to Whipsnade Zoo's website here.

Did you see the period drama, Wolf Hall, on Sunday evening?

The period drama shows the rise of Thomas Cromwell (remember King Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries?), and Mark Rylance leads the adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s tales from Tudor history.  

One of the incredible things about the series – indeed of any period drama – is where it was filmed.   Both English Heritage and the National Trust have a wonderful range of properties you can visit, and did you know that many of them have featured in film and television series over the years?

One of the things I love about BBC period dramas is their attention to detail.  I think they do their research really well to make everything as believable as possible.  How they get the filming done without the sound of aircraft going overhead, I will never know.  But the level of detail they achieve is quite extraordinary and for me, it adds to a really good drama. 

This is Tilbury Fort in Essex now in the care of English Heritage.
It's got its own moat and bridge along with a run of Georgian style terrace houses,
which are known as the officers' quarters.

The historic properties certainly add to the atmosphere, like an orchestra giving a performance extra power and weight,   And for film buffs and those of us who love a good TV series, as you stroll through parkland you’ve seen in a dramatic episode, or enter a long pictured gallery which has been the site of a very tense scene, you can almost hear the characters voices and words.

For instance, the Wolf Hall 2015 series featured Brandford-on-Avon Tithe Barn and Dover Castle; both are under the care of English Heritage.

This is Great Chalfield Manor and Garden in Wiltshire,
one of the settings for Wolf Hall.

Downton Abbey, Anna Karenina, Jane Austen novels, Rebecca, Far from the Maddening Crowd, Belgravia, Games of Thrones, Dracula Untold, Harry Potter, The Secret Garden, Enola Holmes,  Death and Nightingales, Hampstead, Swallows and Amazons, Malificent, Snow White and The Huntsman, Cinderella, Napoleon – they’ve all featured scenes or longer at various National Trust properties – you can see which ones are where here. Poldark had lots of the coast and countryside areas in it.  And let’s not forget Bridgerton, The Pursuit of Love, Doctor Who and The Unlikely Pilgrimage.

Scenes from Bridgerton were filmed at Osterley Park and House, West London

The income from the location fee goes back into caring for these wonderful properties, which is great news!

Take a look at the National Trust properties, some of which have appeared in films and on TV!

And here are the English Heritage ones!

A gift membership to either could make a lovely membership for someone who enjoys films and dramas.

English Heritage give us an idea of what it’s like to have films and TV shows on location with them – some of the more unusual requests they’ve received was firstly to bring in a tortoise and secondly to bring 35 horses.  (That last one must have given them some good manure for the gardens.)

The top priority is to protect both fabric and collections and lighting equipment can give challenges because it can affect the conditions of a room.  As you’re probably aware, some pieces in any collection will demand specific conditions such as the right temperature or amount of light.  English Heritage work closely with production teams so that any potential risk can be assessed in advance and risks minimised.  We've got to look after our heritage!