I got blown out to tea yesterday! Just at two o'clock I left the house and as I opened the door the first sprinkling of rain and the first gusts of wind came riding from the west on dark storm clouds. I had thought I could gain the teahouse before the storm came down upon us, but no, - I arrived for our assignation breathless and wind-blown, the last to gain shelter.
I joined the tea table and felt moved back in time. This Tea Shoppe is a new business in town. The tables are laid with white linens and lace, silver and fine china, and the lady who serves tea also makes the most incredibly light scones. I brought two home for Charles - lovely sweet raspberry delights that practically float an eighth of an inch above the china plate beneath them, - so buoyant and crumbly, they fairly melt in your mouth.
This was a gathering of the ACW, - a group of Anglican Church Woman who have been friends for many years, but have now reached the age where they have retired the organization to having tea every once in a while and a jolly old chin-wag!
We lingered at the table, savouring the friendship as much as the tea and scones. Outside the wind howled, bowing the boulevard trees and scattering leaves and sheets of rain perpendicularly down the main street, but inside the warmth of friendship and the lovely old-fashioned ambience of a real Tea Shoppe were enough to keep us quite happy and content and immersed in talk and laughter.
Eventually it was time to leave, - I went to get a few groceries in the wind and the rain, stuffed with raspberry scone which, unfortunately, took its revenge on me during Happy Hour with dire heartburn, - or maybe it was the Orange Brandy.........
There is still another scone left in the refrigerator
Shall we divide it at coffee time?????
