T Stands For Tea

 

Blog post from April 15, 2010 and one of my favorite pictures of Ink:

With lousy weather, feeling crummy, and schedules finally syncing schedules, my friend, Red, was able to come over for tea. Several months back over steaming mugs of tea, Red mentioned she was looking for a china teapot. How she would love to use the china. Got me thinking because I have several teapots, china cups, and a china tea set which belonged to my mother. She  gave the tea set to me a few years ago. These items live in a curio cabinet and are not used. I thought setting the table with the china would seem pretentious. On the other hand, it seemed a shame not to use the fine china.

Ma bought the tea set when she first moved to the house where I grew up. She wanted something nice to have to serve the ladies tea. She found the tea set at Jordan Marsh. Most likely it was on sale as Ma was keen for the thrill of the hunt. The china is Rosenthal and the pattern is Caprice. Delicate ivory cups with pink dogwood and yellow forsythia blossoms. (I'd have preferred blue forget-me-nots) Ma worked so afternoon tea with the ladies didn't happen, but she used the set whenever we had company.

I set the table with the tea set, pretty dishes, and linen napkins. Baked a non-traditional Irish Soda bread. We ate, gossiped, laughed, and sipped tea from the pretty cups.  With Ink hopping up to check out the goodies, it was almost like being 6 yrs old and having a tea party with imaginary friends.

Do you use your fine china or best dishes only when you have company?

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.