Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - The Pouring Teapot

May 18 - May 24 The Pouring Teapot This week is all about sharing about teapots. Do you have one? two? or three? maybe more? Is it for display only or do you use it for tea? What is the tea server you use most? Your favorite teapot (or is it something like a quart jar?). Tell your teapot story, give it's history, and tell what it means to you. You can share more than once if you'd like. Antique, new, Asian, English, or something inbetween --- we'd love to know! Imagine two shearers, two helpers, their father and elderly uncle, a wool throwing table, brooms, lots of noise from the shears, maybe a dog or two.  Then at morning tea, one of the helpers wives comes with a large metal tea pot, mugs, milk, sugar and loads of cakes including beer cake & jam drops.  The section near the wool, the spare piece of floor in the shed, that actually has lino on it is now where we eat and drink.  This is my memory of not this teapot, it was the standin.  It was very enjoyable and well ordered.  It is the best tea I have had.  The teapot is for display.  I also have a white teapot with pink spots, and a normal sized metal teapot.

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Thursday, May 8, 2008 - Tea Room Ventures and Venues

May 11 - May 17 Tea Room Ventures and Venues Share all about one of your favorite tea rooms. Use photos and descriptions to tell about the decor and ambiance, menus, service, and what makes this tea room special to you. Does this tea room have a gift shop? What kind of special treasures does it contain? Waltons Tintaldra General Store I went to this tearoom today for my entry in the blog-a-thon.  When we first moved here four years ago, I heard that this place was a tearoom.  It is advertised in tourist circles I think, and I had read about it somewhere.  Still I haven't been and sat down to anything.  I am thinking if Mum comes again soon we will go there for lunch.  Today I couldn't stay long, I was on my way back from grocery shopping and the lady was expecting a coach, as you can see.  I was very impressed with this older lady.  She has many large tables and they were all set with buttered bread in baskets.  She couldn't be more friendly or helpful.  She reminded me of my Nana with the buttered bread.  It was the oldfashioned type.  The walls in the building in the left were like slabs of eucalypt.  There were many oldfashioned things in that section, but what you notice most where the old photographs, some would have been hanging on ladies my age, grandmother's walls once.  Today the lady had two helpers, and before the bus came was having a chat with a man who perhaps had come for his mail or bought something in the general store.  It was a lovely atmosphere.  I think my friends were knitting down the back and looked very cosy. There were things to buy as gifts, some of them handknitted.  It was set up very nicely with a guest book to sign, little brochures near the door and lots of history information.  I remember there was bush music playing, it sounded like Lazy Harry. I came around lunch time, so next time I should come at a time for Devonshire Tea, which I would love. I guessed that stew would go with the bread, and found this link that suggests that.  Tank water tea is mentioned in it.  The old people say that tea is best made with real water, not water that is "town water".  While looking for information about that I found that there are theories about how long you should boil the water! My husband asked me about the bread.  It was real bread, and this link suggests they bake it themselves.

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Wednesday, May 7, 2008 - Set the Table, Tea is On!

May 4 - May 10 Share a creative afternoon tea table setting.  Linens, serving pieces, teapots and teacup, tea accotrement's and accessories, centerpieces, tea trays or three-tiers, and more.  Show one way you enjoy creating a memorable tea experience.  This is your opportunity to show the world the fun you have when you create your own special tea experience. Then. . .invite over a friend or neighbor and share some tea together. That way all your work is not for ought. This photo is from a Flickr album, to view this album click here. My children would love this tea experience.  This is called Billy Tea.  I have a tea set that my Mother In Law gave me, but it is packed away for the time being, so today I am talking about another nice way to enjoy tea.  Here is a recipe for Billy Tea.  Here is the history of Billy Tea.  This is the setting for Billy Tea.  It is served with damper.  In American terms I think damper is a giant biscuit.  There are lots of gourmet damper recipes around these days, but probably not for around the campfire.

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Friday, May 2, 2008 - The White, Green, Black, and Herb of Tea

I visited Garden Goose today and found this lovely Blog-a-Thon at Gracious Hospitality all about tea!  I recently changed my "About Me" to include tea, so this is great.  This weeks theme April 27-May 3: Tell about your favorite tea. How do you prepare it and serve it? Milk and sugar? Plain? What are some of your best memories of serving or sipping on this tea? Share a picture if you can. Tell the health benefits of the tea(s) you prefer. Where do you purchase your tea? Is there someplace you enjoying purchasing tea from? Who from and where? My favourite tea is from Dilmah.  Because of the price I will also drink IGA Courtyard round bags or Madura Tea Estates.  The last two teas are listed on this site as Australian.  Dilmah has a website to visit here.  Tea is black tea to me.  However, I do sometimes drink camomile with honey, with having so many children and extended breastfeeding, from memory I had to stop drinking it for awhile.  I was amazed after buying chai tea, that I love the smell and it really made my cupboard smell nice for awhile.  It even tainted some of the plastic cups, though lemon fizzy drink with the smell of chai tea behind it is lovely.  The lemon drink had 211 in it, so I have only been buying natural lately, I think I am alergic.  We have instant Dandelion tea in the house, and it is very nice, by Symingtons.  The chai tea is missing hmmm.  It must have got too much for them?  We buy the teabags that don't have the tag, they are more for teapots.  I have mine in a mug white with two sugars.  When I was little I had it black with two sugars, I think the same way my Dad had it.  My memory is not good, but I think it is related to those teas I drank in the shearing shed when I was little.  Still the best memory of drinking tea, in an enamel mug.  My aunty made the tea, and had a giant teapot. I remember recently after we bought our house that we are going to move into (I think lol) not wanting to discard the taps we found in that house.  We had to in the end they were past their useby date, there were three types of turners, lots of things, but that seems like a long time ago.  The bottom line was, the end of the tap reminded me of the same material that kettles and things are made of, coated brass.  Already I have forgotten but the base is brass and the top a silver colour. The preferred mugs in this house are white, with a picture on them and a certain size.  Most were given to us.  Recently I found one the same on ebay, and this time a picture of Raggedy Ann to celebrate 90 years.  There is another one here.  One broke the handle in the mail even though it was very strong, but fortunately my favourite one survived. I buy my tea at IGA.  I drive 50 minutes to get there every two weeks or a fortnight and drive on a dangerous but very scenic route. I enjoy this shop very much, the staff are very friendly.  Some people I meet there have my Dad's personality and they weren't even brought up in the same place.  I wonder how that came to be?

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