Tag: Afternoon Tea

#89 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Colour, SerendipityLeave a comment

Lola is struggling with the concept of the festive season being over. Her first full day of normality was mostly spent as I de-rigged 3/4 of the Christmas decorations, snuggled in a blanket. The tree remains and it is the red lights from the tree that give her the warm glow to her face. Our local council is not offering a Christmas tree collection service this year. Without a front garden the tree must stay up and indoors until we can wrestle it into an old quilt cover and take it to the local tip. It is a completely different beast from the slender,fragrant and sheathed tree we brought home in mid December. Remarkably it is not yet dropping its needles but I know the minute we start its decommission we will be ankle deep in spiky needles. To be honest I have little truck with the bad luck concept of leaving a tree up beyond 12th Night, and a great deal of truck, maybe the M2 after Brexit, with the concept of keeping this dark time of year illuminated with twinkling lights. So for now snuggling in a cosy blanket illuminated by small red lights is still a thing in our house.

The tree has also gained its own festive coloured bag of Tea Bags. Thank you, again,Brenda Bennett. We may now have enough tea to see us through to the unpredictable end of this pandemic and possibly to next Christmas!

Pandemic Pondering #567

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends, SerendipityLeave a comment

This was yesterday morning as we left the coàst. Today has started in much the same sunny way.

In between we have been drenched by monster showers in both the home and away locations. The sun is particularly welcome today as we wrestle with wallpaper and paint decisions and generally plan on doing fairly dull stuff. Who needs sun for camping and coastal adventures! We starved ourselves yesterday ready for an afternoon outing with some friends. It is a reflection of our hunger and not the quality of the comestibles that brings the blog to the sorry state of having no pictures. A shocking state of affairs when offered such a pretty range of sweet and savoury treats. Afternoon tea will be represented on this blog only by the left overs that we brought home. How slack is that!

Pandemic Pondering #512

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Bobbing, Home Towns, Serendipity3 Comments

A day of sweet and sour. Three hours in an actual physical bank and the transaction still not completed by the time we left. Not a businesslike bone in the building! The sweetness that started the day came out of boredom as we waited and waited. I had bought some sunflowers and noticed that there were beads of nectar. I also marvelled at the Fibronacci Sequencing of the seed head. The bank was very dull!

Overwhelmed by Fibronacci excitement and curiosity and with plenty of time on my hands I decided to taste the nectar.

Tiny, twinkling beads of sweetness but oh so sticky!

If banks still had piles of money I could have covered my hands with nectar and plunged them into a pile of money and run around the corner and delivered it in person to the bank we were trying to make the transfer to.

Flights of fantasy and Fibronacci wonderment can only get you so far and there are no longer piles of money, obviously waiting for sticky fingered clients, in banks. After three hours we failed to transfer any money from one account to another. Legally or illegally, with or without nectar . Time to head off for afternoon tea in a barn.

Fully charged with sugar and tea there was only a couple of hours of downtime before an evening of questionable entertainment.

©Marianne Bobber

Four bobbers went to an outside performance of Jaws. Screened at our local Lido we were surrounded on three sides by water as we visited Amity Island for the 4th of July. We still jumped and screamed. Tomorrows bob will have an extra texture of frisson.

Pandemic Pondering #184

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)2 Comments

Trematonia is a fantastical design for wallpapers and soft furnishings based on the gardens and woods of Trematon Castle.

https://www.houseofhackney.com/uk/trematonia

Obviously it’s a fictional land but it is one we overlook every day when we take the dogs for a walk.

By slightly extending the fiction I can say that we have many friends who live in Outer Trematonia, in real life the village of Trematon that stretches to the west and far beyond the castle. Today we had quite the adventure and went for Afternoon Tea at Trematon Hall, also within the fictional world of Outer Trematonia, Afternoon Tea has always seemed a slightly fantastical meal, I blame Lewis Carol and his Alice in Wonderland

@theoldmortuary we are partial to an afternoon tea. A subject we have studied diligently over the years. We were not disappointed , the reverse in fact. Close to home we found one of the tastiest afternoon teas we’ve had in a while. Julie, our host, is an amazing baker, everything was home made.

Every last crumb was eaten, in no particular order these were our  highlights , Ham and Piccalilli (the best piccalilli we’ve tasted) Pear Tarte Tatin (Pears from the garden) Scone, Clotted Cream with Tayberry Jam ( Tayberries from a neighbours garden)

Controversial image I know , especially as we are in Cornwall but the bigger news is that one of our friends cousins bred the Tayberry in 1979. Apparently it is like a blackberry on speed, which is all a little bit Alice in Wonderland, so just as well we were in the fantasy land of Outer Trematonia.

Julie showed us around her stylishly renovated home. One that many local women would be familiar with, as the Trematon Women’s Institute met here, when Liz Turner owned the Hall. Another reminder of Liz was the family Beach Hut which she had moved to the gardens to remind her of family holidays by the sea.

Following the fantasy theme of this blog I took some pictures that have nothing to do with afternoon tea and everything to do with distilling the magic of a place into a few photos.

You can just see the cousin of the Tayberry Breeder in this shot.

In all seriousness @theoldmortuary had a fantastic afternoon tea in an idyllic setting at Trematon Hall, which is in the real life village of Trematon.

Hall Farm, Trematon, Saltash PL12 4RU
01752 842351 https://g.co/kgs/97Tqb6

But one last fantasy nod to both Alice in Wonderland and Outer Trematonia.( I blame all this fantasy stuff on the sugar and copious cups of tea )

An Outer Trematonian caterpillar arriving for his own cup of tea, wise chap, excellent choice.

Pandemic Pondering #121

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Cornwall5 Comments

Pondering since March has strengthened our resolve to shop locally and support local businesses.

Today’s outing was planned with exactly that in mind.

Lavender fields have long been on our wish list of things to visit. Provence springs to mind but in reality when we lived in South London , Kent was closer, but we still never quite achieved it.

We booked an afternoon tea at Great Carnbargus Farm. Perranporth, Cornwall. Home of Cornish Lavender and a warm and fragrant welcome. Set on the slopes of the Perrancombe Valley , the lanes ease you into a rural world , very different from the hurly burly of Perranporth, the beach destination.
https://www.facebook.com/CornishLavender/photos/a.1586137621431019/2072360726142037/?type=3&source=44

What an absolute treat to have afternoon tea with Tina Bee and her lovely family, including three fecund pigs called Petal, Pepper and Twig.

This afternoon tea malarky was not even a thought two months ago. Tina had to plan a significant birthday for her Dad, with Social Distancing in mind she planned the party in her lavender field.

Lavender Dad being saluted with a Lavender shortbread.

The party went so well Tina thought she might open up her field as an Afternoon Tea destination.

We had our own small marquee with indoor seating and a table, bedecked with gingham bunting, and an outside lounging area with comfy chairs and a coffee table.

Afternoon tea with a Lavender theme was our order of today but there were many other things on offer.

The farm also offers a safe field for dogs to go mad in and a wooded walk with Fairy doors to find.

Just beyond the pigs there was an Airstream, another one of life’s ambitions. This one is awaiting Planning Permission before finding its moment of Lavender glory.

We had such a great time enjoying simple pleasures and it’s really exciting to see a business idea at such an early stage.

We do love a bit of retro, so we were also thrilled to see these old Crittall Windows at the farm.

We had eaten a good bit of the Afternoon Tea before I took photos, blogging error for sure but also a sign that relaxing in a lavender field can take your mind off everything.

Afternoon Teas are only available in July or, just as much in life, you will have to wait until 2021.

We booked by phone and Instagram

07909 222260

Or cornishlavender on Instagram

Trust us, you will…

It.