This morning was incredibly busy and bustly at work...which is lovely. But a quiet afternoon alone is a nice contrast. It feels a bit odd to be alone on a Saturday afternoon though. Usually dear Carl and I spend them together, but he is in London with a friend who gets married in a few weeks time. I have been reading the archives of a blog I discovered last weekend...www.vixenvintage.blogspot.com and just got caught up to date. As well as having a severe case of wardrobe envy, she has made me want to try rag-rolled curls, although I think my hair might be a little on the long side. I want to make some coffee macaroons to take tomorrow when we go to my sister's barbeque. Later I have a friend coming to see me for a little while before going off on a night out a groups of friends, then she is coming back to ours to sleep. I have found out the blow up mattress already which is a good thing!
And now I find myself pondering what to do next. Change my nail polish? (I know I keep singing its praises, but OPI Start to Finish is really fabulous) or watch the film I ordered from the library (Love Me If You Dare) or go into the kitchen and start baking. Maybe its time for a coffee and a custard tart that I bought from the Farmer's Market this morning? Crochet a bit more on the Union Jack cushion I am making? Cross stitch a bit more on my 'Keep Calm and Carry On' embroidery?
Actually, I think what I may do is go and put the kettle on, and make a cup of tea while I decide!
Love
Mimi
xxx
Saturday, 6 August 2011
Friday, 5 August 2011
It's A New Day
I am almost certain that there is a word that describes when the weather reflects your mood, but I cannot think of it, and a cursory internet search reveals that there are other people in the same boat. Perhaps we have all imagined it...but we cannot have imagined the feeling of when you are feeling down and lost and blue and the sky seems to be as bruised with clouds as you feel bruised yourself, when the rain that comes pouring down is exactly how you feel....or how, the morning after, when the world seems scrubbed clean by yesterdays rain, full of light and hope, that too reflects how you can feel the morning after a good cry.
Now although the rain certainly came tumbling down yesterday, I did not actually spend it crying, but I did feel like I was crying without the tears, if that makes sense. Today I have all the windows open to let in the fresh air, and the air seems bright somehow, like it has been cleansed by yesterdays rain, and I feel brighter too, and more hopeful than I have. I do hope my blog is not becoming a negative place to visit, but it really is helping me to acknowledge how I am feeling rather than trying to swallow it down and smile the whole time.
I am doing a lot of smiling too, though. I am trying not to dwell on things as it doesn't really help matters at all. So, some things that are either making me smile, or at least feel brighter, from the past few days:
Having a fountaing pen filled with purple ink that I keep in my handbag.
The feeling of using that pen to fill in mundane forms, sign papers etc.
Changing handbags and discovering a red lipstick I had thought I had lost in the process.
Brushing my hair and realising it is getting longer.
Fresh tiger bread for breakfast.
The sun shining through my window.
A day spent with my Mum.
A bunch of perviun lillies from my Mum.
Waking up to a cup of tea brought to my bedside by my lovely husband.
Book club tonight, discussing a lovely book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Crocheting a union jack cushion for a gift for a friend.
Blogging and blog friends old and new.
Knowing my wedding bunting is being used at a friend's daughter's wedding today!
I hope you are having a lovely Friday!
Love
Mimi
xxx
Now although the rain certainly came tumbling down yesterday, I did not actually spend it crying, but I did feel like I was crying without the tears, if that makes sense. Today I have all the windows open to let in the fresh air, and the air seems bright somehow, like it has been cleansed by yesterdays rain, and I feel brighter too, and more hopeful than I have. I do hope my blog is not becoming a negative place to visit, but it really is helping me to acknowledge how I am feeling rather than trying to swallow it down and smile the whole time.
I am doing a lot of smiling too, though. I am trying not to dwell on things as it doesn't really help matters at all. So, some things that are either making me smile, or at least feel brighter, from the past few days:
Having a fountaing pen filled with purple ink that I keep in my handbag.
The feeling of using that pen to fill in mundane forms, sign papers etc.
Changing handbags and discovering a red lipstick I had thought I had lost in the process.
Brushing my hair and realising it is getting longer.
Fresh tiger bread for breakfast.
The sun shining through my window.
A day spent with my Mum.
A bunch of perviun lillies from my Mum.
Waking up to a cup of tea brought to my bedside by my lovely husband.
Book club tonight, discussing a lovely book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Crocheting a union jack cushion for a gift for a friend.
Blogging and blog friends old and new.
Knowing my wedding bunting is being used at a friend's daughter's wedding today!
I hope you are having a lovely Friday!
Love
Mimi
xxx
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Upon Twitter...
...I am lucky to have a husband who does not mind the technology confounds me. He thinks it is rather lovely that as he sits there synching his online diary with his mobile phone, I am writing important dates into mine with his fountain pen. Some technology I have embraced perfectly well....after all, I blog, I get my groceries delivered and am good at using amazon! But there are other things that well, just pass me by.
Facebook I just about cope with, but I do dislike that for some people it has replaced proper communication. Rather than sharing what is going on in their lives, they shrug and say 'well it was on facebook' as though we are all meant to be glued to it, just watching for when they have news! I am likely to miss any event I am invited to through facebook because I probably wont realise I have been invited! But I do like it for keeping in touch with friends, so it is definitely not all bad.
Twitter..my work has a twitter page (if a twitter page is in fact something you can have!) and I used to get sent all the twitter stats for how many tweets work had made, and how many retweets there were.....well once I got past the first stat, I had no idea what the rest meant! And although one of the girls did talk about retweets and trends...nope, still none the wiser! Part of me likes the accessibility of being able to hear first hand from people in the public eye (I dont really like to use the term star or celebrity for too many people!) but then again....I cant help but wonder if we had fewer interviews and photographs and so on, if they might be better quality. I like that Marilyn Monroe used to score out the negatives of photographs of herself she did not want used from photoshoots. Now with nearly everyone having a mobile phone camera it is so much harder to have control over your image. When that photo of the lovely Christina Hendricks in her swimsuit made headlines, I thought it was so silly. She was caught in a split second, and had it been a split second earlier or later she would have been in a position so you could see how tiny her waist is, rather than all those ridiculous headlines about her size, just because of a bad camera angle. But then again, it is nice to feel that you will hear these peoples actual views and thoughts rather than just what the press agent has allowed to be released.
So, I am not on twitter.....yet. I don't know if I ever will be. I love blogging, but I don't know if I could distill my thoughts down into the character limit. I suspect it is not meant to replace blogging but be an also...but there are so many methods of communication now, it can be a little exhausting. There is the post, in which you so rarely get a handwritten letter or card, and then the mobile phone and texts, the landline and the answerphone, then there are emails, and blogs...I don't know that I want to add to that at the moment. My phone ran out of battery early in the day yesterday, and it was actually curiously nice to be free of it, even if just for the day.
I do think new technology is amazing. I don't claim to understand even a bit of it, but it is wonderful to be able to use it. But when all is said and done, I am rarely happier than with fountain pen and paper, a book and a cup of tea...and so far, I don't think that technology can improve on these!
Facebook I just about cope with, but I do dislike that for some people it has replaced proper communication. Rather than sharing what is going on in their lives, they shrug and say 'well it was on facebook' as though we are all meant to be glued to it, just watching for when they have news! I am likely to miss any event I am invited to through facebook because I probably wont realise I have been invited! But I do like it for keeping in touch with friends, so it is definitely not all bad.
Twitter..my work has a twitter page (if a twitter page is in fact something you can have!) and I used to get sent all the twitter stats for how many tweets work had made, and how many retweets there were.....well once I got past the first stat, I had no idea what the rest meant! And although one of the girls did talk about retweets and trends...nope, still none the wiser! Part of me likes the accessibility of being able to hear first hand from people in the public eye (I dont really like to use the term star or celebrity for too many people!) but then again....I cant help but wonder if we had fewer interviews and photographs and so on, if they might be better quality. I like that Marilyn Monroe used to score out the negatives of photographs of herself she did not want used from photoshoots. Now with nearly everyone having a mobile phone camera it is so much harder to have control over your image. When that photo of the lovely Christina Hendricks in her swimsuit made headlines, I thought it was so silly. She was caught in a split second, and had it been a split second earlier or later she would have been in a position so you could see how tiny her waist is, rather than all those ridiculous headlines about her size, just because of a bad camera angle. But then again, it is nice to feel that you will hear these peoples actual views and thoughts rather than just what the press agent has allowed to be released.
So, I am not on twitter.....yet. I don't know if I ever will be. I love blogging, but I don't know if I could distill my thoughts down into the character limit. I suspect it is not meant to replace blogging but be an also...but there are so many methods of communication now, it can be a little exhausting. There is the post, in which you so rarely get a handwritten letter or card, and then the mobile phone and texts, the landline and the answerphone, then there are emails, and blogs...I don't know that I want to add to that at the moment. My phone ran out of battery early in the day yesterday, and it was actually curiously nice to be free of it, even if just for the day.
I do think new technology is amazing. I don't claim to understand even a bit of it, but it is wonderful to be able to use it. But when all is said and done, I am rarely happier than with fountain pen and paper, a book and a cup of tea...and so far, I don't think that technology can improve on these!
Thoughts on Jobs...
...so this time next week, it is my last day at Chelmsford! I still can't believe it and I am still really unhappy about it, both from the point of view that I am really, really going to miss working there, and also that it is going to make things difficult financially.
The job market here really isn't good at the moment...did I mention that for one job that I applied for, so did 299 other people?! There is a job I really, really want, in London. I hope to find out this week if I got an interview or not. When I first saw the job advert, I had a really good feeling about it, the kind of feeling I got when we viewed our current flat. I felt like it was mine. But now my application has gone in, I feel a lot less sure and a lot more nervous!
If I do get an interview, and please do keep your fingers crossed for me, they are a week Friday. So I will wake up on the monday morning afterwards with no job to go to. I don't want to say 'nothing to do' because there are always things to do at home, but that feeling of I should be at work...but I am not.
I know, I know I should try to enjoy the break, but it isn't a break if you don't have anything to go back too. If I knew it was going to be one, two, three or however many weeks before I got a job I could plan my time accordingly and try to enjoy it, but I am dreading it to be honest.
I don't mean to be gloomy, but I do find it really helps to talk out how I am feeling on here.
I hope so much that none of you will go through this, but sadly in this day and age it is likely that more people will be made redundant. If you do, the best advice I could give you is be kind to yourself. My new boss told me that yesterday, and I suddenly realised that I have been putting myself through things that I wouldn't do to my worst enemy! So if you can, tuck away a little money when you can to cushion you against the fall, and if you do fall, lower your expectations of yourself. Don't go to work when your skin si coming off and your ears are bleeding because you are so stressed. Don't force yourself to go into a workplace that makes you cry in the toilet every day. I know there isn't always an option, but if you need teh time, take teh time. Your logical brain will tell you that you will have all the time off you need once you have worked your notice, but ignore it! This is not about logic, it is about intuition. You will feel numb and sad and useless, but try not to dwell. Dwelling just pulls you down into a spiral of sadness. It sounds superficial, but get up out of bed, put on your red lipstick, drink your tea out of a cup and smile in the mirror. It might not be all better, but it is a start.
Also, look for cheap pleasures where you can. We have a subscription to Sky which we cannot cancel because we are on a contract. So rather than fill my time watching trash which drains me, I record things that I want to see and are 'good quality'. Rather than read trashy gossip magazines (the kind filled with celebrities who I have no idea who they are' save your pennies and buy one really good quality magazine instead. Borrow books you have always wanted to read. Keep an eye on the bargain bin when you are doing the shopping groceries, but don't forget to try buying cheaper cuts of meat full price and cooking them low or slow. A bargain is good, but rummage too often and you start to feel like you are scavenging rather than eating.
There are so many little pleasures that everyone knows about, but because we all know about them, we tend to forget them. Take a bubble bath mid afternoon for true decadence! Walk in the park, fill your lungs with fresh air, and enjoy the view...it is free! Bake a cake or biscuits. Listen to beautiful music, read your favourite blogs.
Whatever else you do, just be kind to yourself, and remember, this too, shall pass.
The job market here really isn't good at the moment...did I mention that for one job that I applied for, so did 299 other people?! There is a job I really, really want, in London. I hope to find out this week if I got an interview or not. When I first saw the job advert, I had a really good feeling about it, the kind of feeling I got when we viewed our current flat. I felt like it was mine. But now my application has gone in, I feel a lot less sure and a lot more nervous!
If I do get an interview, and please do keep your fingers crossed for me, they are a week Friday. So I will wake up on the monday morning afterwards with no job to go to. I don't want to say 'nothing to do' because there are always things to do at home, but that feeling of I should be at work...but I am not.
I know, I know I should try to enjoy the break, but it isn't a break if you don't have anything to go back too. If I knew it was going to be one, two, three or however many weeks before I got a job I could plan my time accordingly and try to enjoy it, but I am dreading it to be honest.
I don't mean to be gloomy, but I do find it really helps to talk out how I am feeling on here.
I hope so much that none of you will go through this, but sadly in this day and age it is likely that more people will be made redundant. If you do, the best advice I could give you is be kind to yourself. My new boss told me that yesterday, and I suddenly realised that I have been putting myself through things that I wouldn't do to my worst enemy! So if you can, tuck away a little money when you can to cushion you against the fall, and if you do fall, lower your expectations of yourself. Don't go to work when your skin si coming off and your ears are bleeding because you are so stressed. Don't force yourself to go into a workplace that makes you cry in the toilet every day. I know there isn't always an option, but if you need teh time, take teh time. Your logical brain will tell you that you will have all the time off you need once you have worked your notice, but ignore it! This is not about logic, it is about intuition. You will feel numb and sad and useless, but try not to dwell. Dwelling just pulls you down into a spiral of sadness. It sounds superficial, but get up out of bed, put on your red lipstick, drink your tea out of a cup and smile in the mirror. It might not be all better, but it is a start.
Also, look for cheap pleasures where you can. We have a subscription to Sky which we cannot cancel because we are on a contract. So rather than fill my time watching trash which drains me, I record things that I want to see and are 'good quality'. Rather than read trashy gossip magazines (the kind filled with celebrities who I have no idea who they are' save your pennies and buy one really good quality magazine instead. Borrow books you have always wanted to read. Keep an eye on the bargain bin when you are doing the shopping groceries, but don't forget to try buying cheaper cuts of meat full price and cooking them low or slow. A bargain is good, but rummage too often and you start to feel like you are scavenging rather than eating.
There are so many little pleasures that everyone knows about, but because we all know about them, we tend to forget them. Take a bubble bath mid afternoon for true decadence! Walk in the park, fill your lungs with fresh air, and enjoy the view...it is free! Bake a cake or biscuits. Listen to beautiful music, read your favourite blogs.
Whatever else you do, just be kind to yourself, and remember, this too, shall pass.
On Menu Planning
I am sure I must have mentioned before that when we were first living together, I menu planned religiously. It did not occur to me that there was any other way of doing things. I would sit and plan the menus for a week, then produce the shopping list from that. It was time consuming of course but it was lovely to always know what was going to be for dinner that night, and for all the shopping to be done in one go.
However, as many ladies will surely agree with me, it is draining to be the one in charge of planning the menus all the time. I started to feel really jaded and unenthusiastic for the task and found it harder and harder to make time for it. Eventually one day we went to the supermarket with the idea of buying some fruit, veg, milk, and some fish or meat for each evening. Things didn't fall apart so we carreid on doing that for far too long, and as my working situation took up more and more time and energy and travel, it quite often got the point where I would pop into a shop on the way home to pick up something for tea. The trouble with that is that it is more expensive, and it takes up more time, and when you are tired and hungry you are generally looking for a quick option, which does not make for a happy cooking experience.
More than once, on hearing my complain about the situation, Carl would ask 'why not just start menu planning again?' which is a sensible question, but is rather like telling someone to 'just give up smoking' or 'just lose weight'. There seemed to be a kind of invisible barrier in my way just making it impossible to get back in it.
Another issue is that I feel that there must be an optimum way of eating for good health and enjoyment, but I don't feel we have found it quite yet. I know what we are working towards, but pinning it down on paper and designing a routine with which to bring it about has been a bit elusive so far.
I have previously talked about how we eat less meat and fewer processed foods, but also I like food to be seasonal. With me only working part time as of next week, and other dark clouds on the horizon, budget is a definite factor. Of course, it needs to look good and taste good too! For me meat has to be good quality and free range even if I can't always afford to buy organic. It is important to me that if an animal has died so I can eat it then it needs to have had a good life first. I want to work towards having a kind of menu planning routine, so for example Monday would be fish night, Tuesday would be soup night and so on. I think having that kind of structure will be helpful, and by using books from the library such as 'Women's Institute Book of Soups' I should be able to make sure there is enough variety that it doesn't feel boring.
I have been enjoying getting our shopping delivered again and doing a menu plan to shop from. I do find it is too easy to get fall off the plan though, if for example we arrive home too late to cook or one of us really doesn't fancy what I had planned for that evening. Once I am properly back in the saddle, I would like to find a nice way to display the menu for the week in the kitchen. That way if Carl is back home before me, he could make a start because he would know what we were having (which he has said he would like to do!). I quite like blackboards, but I also saw in a magazine a square artists canvas decorated with silk flowers and ribbon, with a gold peg, and you clip the weekly menu to the clip and just change it next week.
I almost feel like I am writing a book at the moment, to be honest. I have been reading a lot of books about nutrition and cookery, right from the 50s up to today...it is amazing how some ideas which seem newer (juicing) were already being written about 60 years ago! There are elements from different authors that I like and seem to make sense, so I want to try and weave them together to make something that suits us. And then of course we actually need to try using the plan for a few weeks to see how it makes us feel!
At the moment though, a tupical week would start on Sunday with an organic free range roast chicken and lots of vegetables, and perhaps some stuffing. Then on Monday we would use some of the meat in sandwiches for lunch. Monday night would be a vegetable soup (one of my favourites is spinach or watercress with poached egg). Then on Tuesday we might have chicken and vegetable risotto. Wednesday could be a vegetarian dish such as aubergine parmigiana, and then on Thursday I would do something like roasted vegetable pasta. Friday night we may have poached fish, steamed veg and new potatoes, and then on Saturday I might make a pizza (my favourite topping is grated carrot and broccoli). The principle is to have some meat and make it stretch, and then fill in the gaps with vegetable dishes and fish.
There will be more on this at some point in the future...but for now, that is menu planning in our household!
Love
Mimi
xxx
ps Dinah, iced tea is not particularly well known here...the cocktail is probably more widely drunk than actual iced tea. However, I love it! I fear it may not be seen as authentic to you though, for us, iced tea is made by Lipton's and comes in a bottle! I love the original flavour and the peach, and the lemon. We have a chain of tea and coffee selling shops here called Whittards - they have a website - and they sell powdered instant iced tea, so far I have only tried the elderflower flavour and it was heavenly!)
However, as many ladies will surely agree with me, it is draining to be the one in charge of planning the menus all the time. I started to feel really jaded and unenthusiastic for the task and found it harder and harder to make time for it. Eventually one day we went to the supermarket with the idea of buying some fruit, veg, milk, and some fish or meat for each evening. Things didn't fall apart so we carreid on doing that for far too long, and as my working situation took up more and more time and energy and travel, it quite often got the point where I would pop into a shop on the way home to pick up something for tea. The trouble with that is that it is more expensive, and it takes up more time, and when you are tired and hungry you are generally looking for a quick option, which does not make for a happy cooking experience.
More than once, on hearing my complain about the situation, Carl would ask 'why not just start menu planning again?' which is a sensible question, but is rather like telling someone to 'just give up smoking' or 'just lose weight'. There seemed to be a kind of invisible barrier in my way just making it impossible to get back in it.
Another issue is that I feel that there must be an optimum way of eating for good health and enjoyment, but I don't feel we have found it quite yet. I know what we are working towards, but pinning it down on paper and designing a routine with which to bring it about has been a bit elusive so far.
I have previously talked about how we eat less meat and fewer processed foods, but also I like food to be seasonal. With me only working part time as of next week, and other dark clouds on the horizon, budget is a definite factor. Of course, it needs to look good and taste good too! For me meat has to be good quality and free range even if I can't always afford to buy organic. It is important to me that if an animal has died so I can eat it then it needs to have had a good life first. I want to work towards having a kind of menu planning routine, so for example Monday would be fish night, Tuesday would be soup night and so on. I think having that kind of structure will be helpful, and by using books from the library such as 'Women's Institute Book of Soups' I should be able to make sure there is enough variety that it doesn't feel boring.
I have been enjoying getting our shopping delivered again and doing a menu plan to shop from. I do find it is too easy to get fall off the plan though, if for example we arrive home too late to cook or one of us really doesn't fancy what I had planned for that evening. Once I am properly back in the saddle, I would like to find a nice way to display the menu for the week in the kitchen. That way if Carl is back home before me, he could make a start because he would know what we were having (which he has said he would like to do!). I quite like blackboards, but I also saw in a magazine a square artists canvas decorated with silk flowers and ribbon, with a gold peg, and you clip the weekly menu to the clip and just change it next week.
I almost feel like I am writing a book at the moment, to be honest. I have been reading a lot of books about nutrition and cookery, right from the 50s up to today...it is amazing how some ideas which seem newer (juicing) were already being written about 60 years ago! There are elements from different authors that I like and seem to make sense, so I want to try and weave them together to make something that suits us. And then of course we actually need to try using the plan for a few weeks to see how it makes us feel!
At the moment though, a tupical week would start on Sunday with an organic free range roast chicken and lots of vegetables, and perhaps some stuffing. Then on Monday we would use some of the meat in sandwiches for lunch. Monday night would be a vegetable soup (one of my favourites is spinach or watercress with poached egg). Then on Tuesday we might have chicken and vegetable risotto. Wednesday could be a vegetarian dish such as aubergine parmigiana, and then on Thursday I would do something like roasted vegetable pasta. Friday night we may have poached fish, steamed veg and new potatoes, and then on Saturday I might make a pizza (my favourite topping is grated carrot and broccoli). The principle is to have some meat and make it stretch, and then fill in the gaps with vegetable dishes and fish.
There will be more on this at some point in the future...but for now, that is menu planning in our household!
Love
Mimi
xxx
ps Dinah, iced tea is not particularly well known here...the cocktail is probably more widely drunk than actual iced tea. However, I love it! I fear it may not be seen as authentic to you though, for us, iced tea is made by Lipton's and comes in a bottle! I love the original flavour and the peach, and the lemon. We have a chain of tea and coffee selling shops here called Whittards - they have a website - and they sell powdered instant iced tea, so far I have only tried the elderflower flavour and it was heavenly!)
Monday, 1 August 2011
Upon The Making and Drinking of Tea
Now I don't know if this is completely true, because I have never been there, but I am given to understand that in America, a kettle is not a standard piece of kitchen equipment! I hear rumours of water being heated in microwaves! I really cannot get my mind to quite imagine such a world, but I suppose it must be true!
In my kitchen, a kettle is a necessity. In my first kitchen, we started with an electric kettle, and then switched over to a whistling kettle that you use on top of the gas hob. I loved my whistling kettle. Yes, it took longer to boil, but it was just the most cheery sound in the world. Now we have moved into a flat that does not have gas, so we are back to an electric kettle, and although I miss the look and the whistle of our old kettle (it is in storage!) the speed of electric does make up for it.
When I was growing up, we never made tea in a pot, it was always made in a bag in the mug. Yet Carl's family always made tea in a pot, again with bags. Somehow tea does taste better made in a pot. I have a blue teapot for every day use, and I generally use bags just for ease, but I do have some leaf too that I enjoy using on occasion. I also have a beautiful Royal Doulton tea pot that I use for special occasions....although that might mean that I am just in the mood for pretty tea things, not necessarily that it is a birthday or christmas!
I actually have an entire cupboard of tea things...pretty cups and saucers, tea plates, tiered cake stands, milk jugs, cake forks, sugar bowls....such bliss!
We usually drink decaffeinated tea for everyday, but I also adore Whittard Rose tea. I have to be really, really in the mood for Earl Gray, but am quite partial to Lady Gray. When I last had afternoon tea out, it was at Liberty, and I had the breakfast tea despite it being the afternoon, and it was fragrant and beautiful. I am also quite partial to chamomile tea, particularly in the evening.
So that is my answer to what kind of tea I drink...just the menu plan to go now!
In my kitchen, a kettle is a necessity. In my first kitchen, we started with an electric kettle, and then switched over to a whistling kettle that you use on top of the gas hob. I loved my whistling kettle. Yes, it took longer to boil, but it was just the most cheery sound in the world. Now we have moved into a flat that does not have gas, so we are back to an electric kettle, and although I miss the look and the whistle of our old kettle (it is in storage!) the speed of electric does make up for it.
When I was growing up, we never made tea in a pot, it was always made in a bag in the mug. Yet Carl's family always made tea in a pot, again with bags. Somehow tea does taste better made in a pot. I have a blue teapot for every day use, and I generally use bags just for ease, but I do have some leaf too that I enjoy using on occasion. I also have a beautiful Royal Doulton tea pot that I use for special occasions....although that might mean that I am just in the mood for pretty tea things, not necessarily that it is a birthday or christmas!
I actually have an entire cupboard of tea things...pretty cups and saucers, tea plates, tiered cake stands, milk jugs, cake forks, sugar bowls....such bliss!
We usually drink decaffeinated tea for everyday, but I also adore Whittard Rose tea. I have to be really, really in the mood for Earl Gray, but am quite partial to Lady Gray. When I last had afternoon tea out, it was at Liberty, and I had the breakfast tea despite it being the afternoon, and it was fragrant and beautiful. I am also quite partial to chamomile tea, particularly in the evening.
So that is my answer to what kind of tea I drink...just the menu plan to go now!
My Impression of a GloWorm
Oh dear, oh dear. You would think I should know by now that with my fair skin I just cannot go out in the sunshine for long periods of time. But this past Sunday morning, I spent a happy hour or so wandering around a car boot sale with a dear friend who I have not seen for a while, and didnt notice I was catching the sun at all. Until I got home, and poor Carl opened the door to a bright red wife and said 'Wow! You have turned into a gloworm!'
It is so terribly hard to look elegant when you are bright red, and I fear I have done my nose a real damage as it feels all...papery and squishy at the same time! But it was lovely to catch up with the lovely Carla again, and we both found some real treasures. My first buy of the day were 4 teeny tiny cups and saucers and an equally petite sugar bowl, floral of course. I plan to serve chocolate mousse in them next time I have people round for dinner. Carla was on the look out for a vintage typewriter, but was not particularly expecting to find one as she had not spotted one before....we found 5, of which she bought 2! My other purchases were a Hollywood Album for 1960, and a beautiful dressing table set in green and silver. Pictures some point soon!
I will be back later with thoughts on meal planning, and tea making in answer to my other 'enquire within' questions. Off to cook dinner now though...I hope you are enjoying the sunshine, and aren't strawberry red like me!
It is so terribly hard to look elegant when you are bright red, and I fear I have done my nose a real damage as it feels all...papery and squishy at the same time! But it was lovely to catch up with the lovely Carla again, and we both found some real treasures. My first buy of the day were 4 teeny tiny cups and saucers and an equally petite sugar bowl, floral of course. I plan to serve chocolate mousse in them next time I have people round for dinner. Carla was on the look out for a vintage typewriter, but was not particularly expecting to find one as she had not spotted one before....we found 5, of which she bought 2! My other purchases were a Hollywood Album for 1960, and a beautiful dressing table set in green and silver. Pictures some point soon!
I will be back later with thoughts on meal planning, and tea making in answer to my other 'enquire within' questions. Off to cook dinner now though...I hope you are enjoying the sunshine, and aren't strawberry red like me!
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