Hey Bartender

I suppose that should be, "Hey TEAtender!"

Tall and Handsome spent last week in London (Welcome home, darling!) visiting his two daughters, two sons-in-love, four sons, two daughters-in-love, two grandsons, two granddaughters (he's beginning to sound old but honest, he's a mere babe in arms), his mum, siblings, and other family and friends. The highlight of the trip was son Jason's wedding in Richmond to the lovliest girl in the world, our Carla. (Pictures forthcoming.)

But I digress.

T&H also spent the last week on the phone with me delighting in "sharing" all the wonderful atmosphere, food, drink, etc., that we so miss and that HE was experiencing in my absence. As tealovers, it's the Uniquely Tea things such as in the photograph above that we miss about living in England.

I took this picture several years ago when mum and I were at the Chelsea Flower Show. It is not uncommon to see Tea Bars such as this at outdoor events. Nothing like being able to order a strong, hot cuppa and a fresh scone to go!

Book of the Week: "Taking Tea with Mackintosh"

In 1896, Kate Cranston, the pioneer of Glasgow tea rooms in the late nineteenth century, commissioned Charles Rennie Mackintosh—who would become one of the Western worlds’ most renowned designers—to design her tea rooms, and over the next two decades he did so with dazzling inventiveness. (Mackintosh’s wife, Margaret, herself an artist, also made important contributions to the interior designs.) Cranston and Mackintosh opened up a unique, avant-garde artistic world to thousands of ordinary people and their tea rooms became internationally famous. Taking Tea with Mackintosh illustrates their exciting collaboration with black-and-white historical photographs of the tea rooms and color photographs of their surviving components. In addition, sixteen recipes for traditional tea room cakes, breads, and pastries are supplied, offering the best chance the reader will have to revisit these extraordinary places.

I have not yet had an opportunity to visit the Glasgow Willow Tea Rooms, but I regularly visit a Mackintosh-inspired tea room in Savannah called The Tea Room. This is my absolute favorite tea room in America and if you ever find yourself in Savannah, Georgia, do not miss it.