A Visitor

My stepdaughter is visiting for the month of July - she arrived Friday night. While we enjoy having her, I have discovered that I am not one of those for whom latent parenting instincts have bloomed with the addition of a child to my life. In the interest of giving this beautiful girl the attention she needs I suspect that I will be disappearing from this space for a little while.

Though who knows, I may be more inspired than ever since I'll be stretching my imagination in an attempt to find common ground and entertain her without boring her to tears!

I know that I promised to tell my story, and I will as soon as I am back to my attempted-regularly-scheduled-writing-time.

Tea Art

After a lovely Thanksgiving and utterly relaxing Friday at home with my husband and bonus daughter I spent Saturday visiting a blogging friend! Kimberly Shaw is an artist that I have long admired (I've seen her work around in local tea shops and yearned for it for a lot longer than I have known she blogs!) and when she held an open house last year I was unable to go. My mom went and I had a delightful Christmas full of stickers, cards, and even some prints that are hanging among the teacups and plates on the wall in my dining room!

So when I saw her post with her invitation for this year's open house I hastily looked at the date and was overjoyed that I was going to be able to go. As an added bonus, Georgia was bringing her delightful Christmas ornaments and Sherry Evans was going to be there signing copies of her new book, Afternoon Tea in Southern California (which has Kimberly's artwork throughout)!

It turned out to be an absolutely lovely day in spite of (or perhaps because of) the stormy weather. We arrived just before the hail, and so were warm and cozy with cups of tea in hand perusing the Christmas cards in the living room of the home that houses Kimberly Shaw Graphics when the skies opened up. Among displays of all of her cards, stickers, notepads, pins, magnets, and teas (and beautiful paper crafts by Georgia and Sherry's book) we nibbled on homemade scones with homemade lemon curd and pomegranate jelly and sipped tea, chatting it up with all of the other Kimberly Shaw fans who came by to restock their stashes of her beautiful cards.

It was quite the day, and I came home with another print to join the two in my dining room as well as several cards and sticker sheets. I think at least three of the cards are going to end up framed (especially this one). It was wonderful to spend time in such a creative space and to chat with Kimberly about her products and plans. She even showed us some of the original paintings, and my mom and I spotted several of her teacups on the shelves as well.

I loved having the chance to meet Kimberly, Georgia, and Sherry in person and to make those local connections that sometimes get lost in the shuffle. I know that when I first started to covet those Kimberly Shaw cards and notepads I saw I never dreamed that they came from less than an hour away!

Gift Giving at the Cottage

Over at Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op today there is a post gathering Simple, Green and Frugal Christmas Gift Ideas. Since I've already started on our gifts for this year I thought I'd add my two cents to the gathering.



Over the last few years I have been leaning more and more towards gifts that will be useful and not end up gathering dust somewhere. We are presumably giving gifts to people we care about, so why should we give them something that they will never use and perhaps may not even want?

For most of our friends and associates we will be giving "goodie bags" consisting of homemade goodies that are consumable, whether it be cookies, candies, nuts, or other treats with homemade jam or marmalade and perhaps some hand-blended tea added as well.

For the really close people in our lives like parents, godparents, and (bonus) daughter I am making some kind of useful item such as a collection of scarves or an afghan. Something tangible but most definitely usable. These will complement our "goodie bags" for these people.

Several years ago I began a tradition of writing a personal "gift" to each of my loved ones each year, expressing a special prayer for the coming year. Very often when I sit down with a collection of special cards to do this I am not at all sure what I will be saying. I put on some quiet Christmas music, light a candle, wrap a blanket over my legs and meditate on each person before I begin writing. Letting my love for this person flow onto the paper creates a gift that has become a cherished tradition for those I share it with, even the younger ones who I was afraid wouldn't care!

What do you do for your holiday giving?

Tea for One

This is one of those mornings. The clouds hang low in the sky, menacing the hills with dark shrouds of mist and rain. The light wind is chilling, cutting to the bone, and even the birds who are willing to venture out are staying low to the ground or huddling in low branches with their feathers fluffed to the utmost.

Inside, as I sit near the window looking out, I am snuggled in the depths of a warm afghan with my hands wrapped around a cup of brisk tea mixed with a generous dollop of milk and a plate of homemade bread, toasted and slathered generously with real butter and homemade ruby grapefruit marmalade. I have had a busy and long weekend, and I have an hour to myself before I go rushing off into the rain again. It is a day for practicing hospitality for myself.

My toast rests on one of my favorite pretty plates and my tea is in a lovely cup and saucer that makes me feel good to use. Because it is just myself and my writing tools I could just as easily have dumped my lovely toast onto a paper towel or paper plate and my tea into whatever mug happened to be in the front of the cupboard. But I am just as worthy of the pretty stuff as any visitor I may have. Many of us have forgotten to practice hospitality with ourselves and our families. The very dailiness of our contact with our families, the seeming burden of feeding our own selves every day. They wear on us and make us forget that we, too, are special guests and friends in need of seeing the pretty things in life.

So today I invite you to take the time to use the "good" plates for a meal, put a flower that you find beautiful in a vase where you can enjoy it during your day

Birthday Tea

Here are the Sandwiches - on the left, Coronation Chicken on Honey Cracked Wheat and Cucumber, on the right, Seafood Salad and Olive Spread, and in the middle, Roast Beef with Horseradish Cream on Blue Cheese Crackers and Brie fingers. The Olive spread is a favorite, shared by a friend at church who learned it from her mother. Simply mix well drained chopped olives with enough Miracle Whip to hold together as a paste and spread on bread. Mayonaise won't work for this, it just tastes a little funny.

Here are the Ginger Ale Scones - they tasted good but were not as fluffy as my usual scones. The recipe is: 3 cups all purpose flour, 1 cup light cream, 1 cup lemonade (in the UK this means something like Sprite or 7-Up here, not the slightly sweetened lemon juice that we in the US think it means!) I used Ginger Ale, and they came out okay. Put the flour in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the cream and lemonade and mix to form a sticky dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead gently to complete the blend. Roll or press to approximately 1 inch thick and cut out or shape into rounds. If shaping into rounds, cut into wedges. Place on a floured baking sheet and bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden and they sound slightly hollow when tapped.

The Fairy Cakes were hiding from the camera, but here is the chocolate mousse, chocolate dipped strawberries and marshmallows and Gram's Shortbread - a recipe I learned from my grandmother.

A wonderful time was had by all, and we are ready to try more teas in the future. I had a ball putting this together and am looking forward to doing it again soon.

Tea Party Today!

Today is the day a very special young lady is joining me at the Cottage for her very first tea! Preparations are under way, with an elaborate menu of savories and sweets. We'll begin with a lovely creamy tomato basil soup with blue cheese crackers, then move on to a vast array of little sandwiches. I've planned Coronation Chicken Salad, Roast Beef with Horseradish Cream, Seafood Salad, Cucumber (can't have tea without a good cucumber sandwich!), Olive Spread, and Toasted Cheese Fingers. I'm trying a new scone recipe - if it works, I'll share it with you all. With that is some lovely homemade lemon curd and berry jam. For the sweets we'll have Fairy Cakes (it is, after all, her birthday), Gram's Shortbread, Chocolate Mousse, and Chocolate Dipped Strawberries and Marshmallows.

I'm having fun putting together a tea that will introduce this little girl to the joys of our family tradition of visiting tea rooms to celebrate special days like birthdays and Mother's and Father's days. Of course, with a history like that, there is so much I could have chosen! I'll just have to start hosting more teas, so that the fun can continue.

The finishing touch is a special tea that I've blended for her, with rose hips, hibiscus, and rose petals to bring a little bit of color and flavor to a good quality black tea.

Cozy Day at The Cottage

Grey skies and rain - a perfect combination for curling up on the couch with the dog, the cat, some yarn, my crochet hooks, and a pot of lovely spicy tea. It doesn't happen often enough to suit me, so when it does I like to make the most of a day like this. I have several projects in the works and perhaps I will be able to finish one or two today.

I've been really into designing hats recently, and as soon as I figure out which folder they disappeared into, I will post a couple of pictures of hats that are now on heads of friends. I really think hats can be quite classy, not to mention useful. I started wearing them as self defense when it was discovered that I can sunburn (quite badly) through a thick cloud cover and sunscreen, and then noticed that it helped keep my glasses dry on drizzly days! Now I am experimenting with different patterns to create a whole wardrobe of hats for various occasions. It may be overkill, but until they come up with a 100 SPF sunscreen that is easy to wear, I'll be putting on a lot more hats!

So now it is off to curl up with the "kids", my yarn, and some tea in my favorite brown betty teapot and earthenware teacup. I'll be making a spiced tea:

Good quality black tea (use one teaspoon per cup, plus one for the pot)
A pinch of whole cloves, slightly crushed
A good sized piece of candied ginger
A cinnamon stick, broken into small pieces
A piece of nutmeg too small to grate without removing the tips of your fingers
A piece of star anise
An allspice berry or two, crushed into largish pieces
If you really enjoy a truly spicy chai experience, add several peppercorns as well

Put the spices into a tea filter or muslin tea bag (especially good if you can only find ground spices) and add to the water. Bring this to a boil and let it steep for ten minutes. Bring the spiced water back to a boil and pour over the tea leaves or bags and let it steep for four minutes (this should avoid the bitterness of over-brewed tea). Remove the spices and tea and pour into your serving cup. This is good sweetened with honey if you like your tea sweet, and served with a little milk.

Enjoy your day!

Friends and Teacups

I love the delicacy of English Bone China. This teacup is one of my grandmothers, now my mothers. On the other side is a lovely southern belle walking through a garden, an image that has fascinated me ever since I can remember. This teacup is one that I would always dream about as it sat on the display shelf that my father built for the family teacup collection, and when I was allowed to hold it when we washed all of the teacups, I would cradle it gently and get lost in the beautiful gold vines. I always thought that if I touched it too much it would shatter in my hands.

Now that I am older, and hopefully a little wiser, I sometimes use a similar teacup for my afternoon tea. Would I be sad if it broke? Sure. But I get more pleasure out of using one of my bone china teacups than I do letting it gather dust on display.

Bone china is amazingly strong, even though it appears delicate. A true bone china piece is strong enough to hold the weight of a full grown man - I wouldn't want to test that myself, but I've seen pictures and demonstrations! - so I am no longer so afraid. In fact, I see the reflection of my own and my friends and family's lives in the translucent beauty of a bone china teacup. We are all so delicate on the surface; we cry and laugh together at the drop of a hat, we gather to hold each other up. But we are stronger than we seem. We have survived (collectively) divorce, rape, abuse, betrayal, illness, deaths of those we love, and other difficulties; and still we stand strong.

That one china teacup reminds me of my strengths and my frailties. What a lot for just a small cup of tea!

Welcome To My Cottage

Welcome to Wild Oak Cottage. This is a place for questions and perhaps answers - but no guarantees!

Pull up a comfortable chair, wrap your hands around a steaming mug of tea (perhaps brewed from my herbs), and stay a while. Listen to the birds in the trees of the woods beyond the garden, the babbling of the creek, and relax. Read a book - I've got quite a library with all kinds of different subjects - or just chat with me while I go about my days. I'm always busy, either in the garden, the still room, the kitchen, or sitting a while with my crochet or knitting projects.

I'm sure all of my interests will make their way onto these pages, and I invite you to join me in exploring all that life has to offer!