Tea Party

Today I went to a brand new tea place in Gold Hill for lunch with two friends. It was delightful, the owner delightful, the décor fun and food yummy. I can't wait to go back again and hope to frequent it often since it's not but 30 minutes from my house and anyone that knows me knows I love a good tea luncheon.

Ok, so not sure what's happening here but some of my pictures are sideways - that's now how they look on my computer but blogger did something crazy with them.......this is a new issue for me. So, you'll just have to turn your head sideways to see them.....as I don't have the energy to figure out what the issue is. The name of the new tea place is The Teapot on Wheels - they have a regular English style menu and what I think of as high tea luncheons. They also do weddings and other events, cater, and they sit right on the Rogue River - great location.

Here's the tea side of the restaurant - the other side is for those ordering from the regular breakfast/lunch menu.

I love all these teacups and old dresser.

Here's a view of the room we were in - what you can't see is on the wall from where I was standing there are hooks with vintage hats on them - so, of course, we had to put on hats for our tea party.

I had a tisane infused with many berries as I wanted to avoid caffeine - I don't do caffeine......isn't the color of this tisane lovely - it tasted as 'pretty' as it looked.

And here's some yummies.  Not sure if the curtains show enough behind the food - they were pieced together from the owners family heirlooms fabrics/laces.

So, if you live in Southern Oregon or are driving along I5 The Teapot on Wheels is located off exit 45A of I5 - stop by for breakfast or lunch, you won't be disappointed.

It's snowing.........

This is what it looks like out this morning - snowing hard, very cold, very cold this week as in setting record colds. My poor hummingbirds are still around, I have to bring in the feeder to warm up overnight and a couple times a day......not that the house is especially warm......

 

 

On Wednesday friend Kathy and I went to a new tea place in Medford for lunch, Roundtable Tea Company. I am so excited that we have a tea place in the region again - doing tea is one of my favorite things to do. Owners John and Sandra are a delight - Sandra's cooking and baking is incredible and John is an all around expert on teas. Unfortunately we didn't think of snapping a few pictures before we had almost devoured our lunch.....it was yummy.

Here is the tea station in the room we were in - the teapots tip to pour. We got a lesson on each of the teas being served that day.

This is the more casual side of the shop where you can just stop in for a cuppa and scone or meat pie rather than the full high tea - there is also an entire wall filled with all sorts of teas to buy.......and yes I walked away with the Almond Rocker tea which tastes and smells incredible. I will be frequenting this tea establishment as often as possible.

Since today is a snow day and I can't go out like scheduled I will be working on finishing up some gifts to be mailed early next week. Hoping to get to putting together our holiday cards this weekend.

Tea parties and other thoughts......

   Ok, so this is not a new picture - it's from one of my tea parties a few years back. I didn't have any new pictures to share today so I pulled this one so you wouldn't have to look at only text. This was a tea party for 8 - the biggest I've ever done. And believe it or not every person got their own tiered tower of goodies......and I do believe we ate it all........drank a lot of tea..........and did a lot of visiting all afternoon.
   On the bottom level we started with scones, I know one of them is lemon, one hazelnut, can't remember the other. Lemon curd, homemade peach jam and homemade clotted cream.
   Then next were the savories on the middle level, I know there's stilton/pear sandwiches with pistachios around the edge, phyllo cup with crab, cream cheese with veggies, can't remember the others. I do have an extensive tea party recipe file but am too lazy to go look them up.
   Then the sweets on the top...pecan tassies, currant tea cakes, fruit mini-pies and pudding with cream in chocolate cups. And throughout the afternoon we had an assortment of teas. I haven't taken the time to do any tea parties lately.....will need to start thinking about it again.
   So, on to what's happening fiber wise - not much. The spinning I was working on is at a standstill. I'm not sure I like the art yarn I was spinning that I had started plying beads onto but it doesn't matter at this exact moment because the poly footman on my Lendrum broke the other night bringing plying to a standstill. I still don't like the romney/mohair I started spinning, feels too rough even going through my hands. I'll probably finish spinning this bobbin and call it quits, might do ok in a felting project. My friend Yvonne will love spinning this stuff.
   Yesterday was a trying day in the sewing room. I wanted to sew a simple little top to match an outfit I made earlier in the season. First pattern I didn't have enough leftover fabric to make, second pattern the directions were all screwed up, page 2 printed on the backside of page 1 was for another pattern. I will compliment Butterick though, I emailed them about it and within 30 minutes I received a pdf with the correct instructions. Of course, I don't have enough material left for this pattern either. So, a third pattern sits out that will work but I was tired of the thought of sewing by then so I moved on to finishing up a 3 scarf warp - scarves woven and washed, fringes need to be twisted now. I think I'll plan the next warp for the loom - I need some seaglass themed towels for the beach cottage.