I
I have discovered the most delightful little dishes...teacups and saucers and dessert plates...each one varying in shades of pink and painted strokes. Pink lustreware has been calling my name from those tiny Beatrix Potter books...even from the tin of Tasha Tudor's Welsh Breakfast Tea.
How could I resist? As individual pieces come into my home, they begin to form their own whimsical, mis-matched family, of sorts, on the chest in our keeping room.
The lovely teapot waited patiently for the Breakfast Tea to arrive. By Friday afternoon, the ceremony commenced. Lifting the lid of this extraordinary treasure from the mid 1800's, I discovered the darkened lower half of the "inner sanctum," stained, undoubtedly, from countless "brewings". How special I feel to deposit the carefully measured spoonfulls of tea ...the favored blend of the dearly loved Tasha Tudor.
Standing in my kitchen, enjoying the aroma, pouring the steaming liquid into one of the hand painted teacups, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes, illustrated by Tasha Tudor in her book
'Springs of Joy. '
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
Henry James
'Portrait of a Lady'