T is for…

For April I’m challenging myself to an A-Z photo a day excluding Sundays and in addition to any regular posts that come to be.

Today is Wednesday April 23rd and we are on the letter T.

T is for Tea and Tea Rooms and High Tea and Tea for Two and a Table full!

Growing up, tea was the hot drink served most regularly. When there was ‘company’ involved with a meal, it was served at the end of the meal with some sort of sweet treat.

It has only been in the last 18 or so years that going to a tea room and enjoying high tea has been on my radar.

I love this photo of our daughter Katie drinking tea in our rented apartment in April of 2004 in Edinburgh.

Tea tables and tea times became front and center during my early blogging years.

This Blog-a-Thon at Gracious Hospitality by LaTeaDah lit the fire and inspired many table settings and hunting down tea rooms.

Living in Camarillo and closer to my California family for a few years (2006-2010) inspired planning tea times with family and friends. The first one was to celebrate our mom’s 85th birthday in 2008. We gathered at The Gilded Rose Manor Tea Room in Northridge, California.

SIL Kelly, Niece Melissa, Niece Jessica, Sister Kathy, Nadia~Mom and Babushka, Sister Vera, Niece Debbee, Niece Michelle, and me.

Our mom sharing words of wisdom.

There was a lot to learn about photography in those early years of blogging.

This was a fun tea room and it’s sad to report that it is no longer serving tea like many other tea rooms we have visited in the past 15 years.

There are too many tea experiences to try to post them all here for ‘T is for Tea’ this April. Maybe in May I’ll do a tea room or high tea experience a day until I run out of them.

Happy Wednesday everyone. If you are looking for Wednesday Hodgepodge it is the post before this one.

Our Time in Northern Idaho

Most of our time in our neighboring state was spent shopping and eating. We heard about Le Peep from my sister and her hubby. We decided to try it for breakfast on Tuesday. The food and staff were great. Greg had the Stuffed Poblano and I had their Eggs Bene special made with corned beef.

We walked along the boardwalk next to the restaurant and enjoyed the clear views and sunshine. It was early and still on the cool side.

Fortified from our breakfast we tackled several thrift stores, the Chef’s Cash and Carry, At Home, Tractor Supply and Costco. Idaho gasoline is fifty cents less a gallon than Washington. We go to the cash and carry regularly for supplies for our church kitchen. Sales tax is less in Idaho, too, so we took advantage of that for some of our regular purchases.

I did not take any photos at our early dinner at the Blue Bird in Uptown Coeur d’Alene. We both enjoyed the Halibut and Chips (French fries, Hoagies) with the in house tartar sauce and zesty ketchup. One more stop before we called it a night at Seasons where we split a slice of Huckleberry Cheesecake. Back to the hotel for a relaxing evening.

Before we packed up the car (which wasn’t an easy task), we had breakfast again at Le Peep. I had the stuffed french toast and Greg had a Mexican Skillet. Both dishes were delicious! After checking out of the hotel we started our trek back home with stops in Post Falls, Spokane and Deer Park.

Our stop in Post Falls happened to be right next store to another Tea Room I was not aware of and it really had all the tea vibes. It is called La Tea Da. It will be a treat to make some plans to return for tea.

On Thursday at our last session of Winter Bible Study I was informed of another Tea Room in Spokane. This one would be the closest for us to travel to so there might be a tea adventures in the near future at Brambleberry Cottage .

Today, Friday, is a baking day here at our country bungalow with our daughter-in-laws. Tomorrow is Addy’s birthday party. Katie and Andrew are traveling over today. I am and will be very busy with all our kids through the weekend.

Enjoy the weekend and I’ll catch early next week.

Cheers From England ~ Day #7

We had a leisurely morning in the cottage on Thursday. The sun was shining with not a cloud in the sky so we decided to take a short drive to the small town of Broadway in the Cotswolds. We arrived early enough to find a parking spot, walk along the rows of shops on High Street and miss the crowds that arrived while we enjoyed our pub meal at the Crown and Trumpet.

We enjoyed some conversation with the locals.

We still need to schedule our day so that we feel like sitting down to a proper tea. Mostly we’ve been doing tea time in the cottage.

All the small villages or towns we have been in have more than one Tea Room. I think we counted four or more here and there were coffee shops, too. We left Broadway with a larger than usual purchase that we’ll have to carry on the plane with us. It’s not bigger than a bread box! It is a bread box. I’ll show you it in my kitchen back home when I find a spot for it…

Tomorrow we move on to our next short stay at a self catering cottage in Ross on Wye. Packing and traveling will be on the schedule.

Back at our old house it is only 9:00 am and here at the really old cottage in the Cotswolds it is 5:00 p.m. while I finish up this post. Hope all is well in your time zone!

All Aboard!

Judy and I decided to pull together a trip to the Seattle area for the Mennonite Girls Can Cook who live in British Columbia. Judy came up with a plan for the 7 B.C. girls to drive to Bellingham, Washington and hop on Amtrak south. It’s hard to corral that many girls and come up with a good date for everyone but we finally did and Wednesday June 25th would be the day. When the day was finally here one of the 7 had to stay home. Life happens…

I made a sign so they couldn’t miss their tour guide and limousine driver for the day. The car the rental agency gave me seemed as big as a limousine. This photo that Bev took catches the big white ~~limousine~~ SUV in the background. Thanks Bev for the photos I’m stealing from you for this post.

Our first stop was the Queen Mary Tea Room near the University of Washington.

We each had a different china pattern on our tea cups.

The food was delicious and presented nicely. We finished up at the tea room and after checking out the Tea Emporium we drove to our 2nd stop of the day, University Village.

“University Village is an open-air lifestyle shopping center which offers a unique formula of locally-owned boutiques and signature national retailers. U Village is a regional destination for home furnishings, popular fashions and unique gift items with a distinct collection of restaurants and eateries.”

We all enjoyed the beautiful flowers that were blooming in hanging planters and large planters throughout the center. We gave ourselves a time limit and we managed not to lose anyone while we were here.

Next stop before our dinner reservations would be my humble home. A couple of the girls had been to my house before but it was new to the rest.

It was fun to have everyone in my home for a quick refreshment and tour.

We stole Dear away from his bathroom renovation work to take a photo of all of us together on our deck steps.

We made dinner reservations at the Beach Cafe on the Edmonds waterfront which was just a hop skip and jump away from the railway station. The girls wouldn’t want to miss the train.

Several of us chose the different fish tacos for our meal while others had shrimp and scampi dishes. We shared a couple desserts just to top everything off with. By this time in our day we were rather beat and forgot to take some photos of our dishes and desserts.

On to the station and our goodbye hugs.

A lovely day from beginning to end.

I’m already making plans for an Island getaway for the next MGCC girls day out.

Here’s our day through Anneliese’s lens.

Tonight Dear and I are meeting up with Josh and Laura to celebrate a late Mother’s Day/Father’s Day meal together. We will also celebrate the U.S.A. advancing to the round of 16 with our 2nd place finish in group G.

Hot Tea Month Blog-a-thon ~ Week 3

Click on the image to get to the Hot tea Month blog…

Week Three: January 17th-23rd
Our topic for week three of the blog-a-thon is:

“If I could have my own Tea House this is how I would run things…..”

If I ran my own tea room I would want it to be a wonderful experience for anyone who walked through the door. I would not want my guests to feel hurried or ignored so I would limit my tea room to one seating a day. That seating would be for a group of 6 to 12. I might consider two groups of 4 or 2 groups of 6. It would only be open on Saturday. Hey since we’re being hypothetical I have the freedom to plan unrealistically. My tea room would not make any money but I would be happy at the end of the day. Everything would be fresh and made to order. The food would be something that people would remember. Everyone’s tea would be served hot for every cup they sip. Cups would not be dry for longer then a few seconds. My guests would be treated well and their experience would put a smile on their face.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Window Views ~ Spring Tea Garden

Window Views is now Window Views and Doors too! Click on over to the Window Views and Doors Too Blog and join in the fun!

Nine of the ladies in my family and our little 1 month old Grand niece met for tea on Saturday. I took some shots of the windows while we were there. I liked the tea cups hanging in the window…

Lana’s Belated Birthday Lunch!

So guess where I took my little sister Lana G! for her belated birthday lunch today?

We went to Madam Fifi’s Tea Room in Bothell at Country Village. I was wanting to share this Tea Room with Lana and since this is a rare day when we are both in Washington at the same time we took the opportunity. We were both delighted with the Grand Tea.

Madam Fifi’s Grand Tea

Pot of loose leaf tea or iced tea of the day

Cup of soup or garden salad

Fresh seasonal fruit

scones with cream & lemon curd

Generous tea sandwiches—

Smoked salmon cream cheese with cucumber

Crab salad

Chicken curry salad

Turkey with raspberry cream cheese

Grand assortment of decandent tarts, cookies and pastries.

We had the soup of the day and it was wonderful. We also chose the Lady Londonderry Tea. We really enjoyed it and both ended up buying some to take home to savor. It is really hard to treat Lana to a meal. She is very sneaky about picking up the tab. Today I was going to finally win but Madam Fifi thwarted me and insisted on giving us her Grand Tea on the house! Thank you Madam Fifi. We love your establishment and we will be back.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site and have replaced my photos with black and grey boxes of ugliness. I’m slowly deleting those boxes from my blog and trying to update so many posts, very frustrating.

Ruby Tuesday ~ Country Village

I took a little trip to Country Village in Bothell, Washington last week. There was an abundance of red to photograph here! Here’s what their website says about the village.

Shop, dine and feed
the chickens …

Over 40 shops and restaurants clustered among beautifully landscaped gardens, ponds, wandering paths, picnic and play areas.

Everything from fabulous home decor and original art, to antiques and innovative toys!

You can even find anything you need for Belly Dancing at the Ottoman Trading Co.

My favorite find on my visit was not red at all but predominately blue. Madame Fifi’s Tea Room and Bakery. I had a lovely lunch topped off with some delicious scones.

For more Ruby Tuesday head over to Maryt’s at Work of the Poet.

To read more about Country Village you can click over to their Website.

Port Gamble in Washington

On Wednesday afternoon Josh, Laura, Michelle and I took the Ferry from Edmonds to Kingston for High Tea in Port Gamble. The Tea Room at Port Gamble is in an old Victorian house on the main street in this little town. You get off the ferry at Kingston and follow the road to Highway 104 headed for the Hood Canal Bridge. When you get to the 25 mile an hour speed zone you know you are close. You can’t miss it and it’s a delightful afternoon stop!

Josh was such a good sport to play along and don a hat, too. He had never been to High Tea and we discussed just how civilized it is. Of course none of us had to wear hats but we were just in the mood.

I think the highlights for us were the wonderful scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream and then the chocolate fondue at the end of our tea. Duhliscious!! (I miss-spelled that on purpose!)

We strolled through the little town and enjoyed the architecture and unique little shops. Took the picture of the Artful Ewe for you Willow!

My son Josh and Laura

My DIL Laura and niece Michelle

Do you see the sign the antique dealer has under her cash register in her shop? It says “YOUR HUSBAND CALLED – And said you can buy anything you want” On the way out of town we stopped at the Anglican Church.

From the cemetery we could see the Hood Canal Bridge and we commented that we should drop in on Dave and Beth but we didn’t call ahead and our afternoon was turning into evening. Maybe you can meet Katie and I for tea sometime in Port Gamble Beth!?

At the cemetery Josh spotted this engraving on one of the tombstones. “Remember friend as you pass by, As you are now so once was I, As I am now you soon will be, Prepare for death and follow me”

Sobering thought or it could be taken as an encouragement to prepare ourselves for the inevitable by making decisions today that guarantee our future in Glory when we meet our Creator…

Well we decided it was time to head back to the ferry dock and journey across the Puget Sound to Edmonds and onward. But what did we spot on the way back…

CB’s Nuts! A small Roasting operation right off the main highway. We made a U-turn and headed back after we zoomed by too fast to stop. We are glad we turned around. We met Mr. Roasting Guy and he sold us some fresh peanuts, pistachios, and peanut butter.

Can’t get too much fresher then this!

At the ferry dock while we were waiting for our boat I zoomed in for this shot of Mt. Rainier and downtown Seattle. If you look closely you can see the Space Needle to the right of the rest of the buildings.

Another fabulous day in the Greater Puget Sound! To end the day we met my other kids, Dan and Katie, at PF Chang’s for dinner. A very full day that made this lady pretty tired but joyful.

Sisters and Daughters

Our weekend in Seattle has been wonderful. Yesterday the girls had an afternoon out. My sister Lana at Above the Clouds has 3 beautiful collages that capture some of the beauty of our day.

The Queen Mary Tea Room

The Japanese Gardens

We’re wrapping up our extended weekend in Seattle. We fly back to L.A. this evening. I’ll be posting more photos from the weekend after I get back to the condo in Southern California. Have a great Monday!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Tea Rooms