Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Thanksgiving, Harvest Home, Miss Read

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea! A very happy Thanksgiving to you all! This is a Thanksgiving angel by Jim Shore on my mantle,  signifying the abundance of the harvest season. 

I have a small Thanksgiving tea I did last week, as we are out of town for the week leading up to Thanksgiving, since we won't be able to gather with the family for the holiday due to work schedules and in-law or prospective in-law commitments.

My Thanksgiving angel supervises...with 3 teacups, a pumpkin colored metallic gold thread runner, a ceramic pinecone...that usually sits on the corner of my mantle with it's mate...and a bronze squirrel candle holder my daughter gave me years ago...

One on my teacups is one of my favorite hand colored and hand enameled on brown transferware...I love these, because no two are exactly alike...

Taylor & Kent made this teacup between 1931 and 1950, but because of the design, I am voting for the 1940s. I love the raised orange enamel accenting! For more info at Antiques And Teacups, click on the photos.

The next 2 are transferware cups and saucers from my collection....and I'll tell you a secret...in company with many antique dealers, many in my own collection are items that are flawed, but I love them too much to get rid of them! Someday I'll show share some of my other wounded treasures...that I still love! Anyway, there is a Charlotte by Royal Staffordshire ironstone brown transferware floral design...

My camera is acting up a bit, so here is a photo from a listing when I had the dish set available...all of it was sold....

The design is attributed to famous English designer Clarice Cliff, and this dates to the 1920-1930s, before she was famous for her art deco designs.

 This set os a Johnson Brothers hand colored on brown transferware design called Olde English Countryside from the 1940-1950s. Again, there are coors added by artists at the pottery. If you look closely you can see additions of blue, green and pink. I apologize again for the photo...my camera is on it's way out...guess what I want for Christmas?!

The pumpkin shaped cookies are another seasonal treat from our Seattle Gluten Free Shortbread Bakery...aren't they cute? And tasty! I have been so busy and out of town, that I picked these up at the Poulsbo Central Market on our way back from Seattle via ferry.  

In England, although they don't celebrate Thanksgiving as such, their is the Harvest Home or Harvest Festival with links to a pagan past. The adopting of the old agrarian festival into mainstream church life began in 1843 when a Rev. Robert Harkins celebrated Harvest Festival at his Anglican church in Morwenstow, Cornwall. The festival has gotten attached to Michaelmas Day, around Sept. 28-Oct. 4th in the church calendar.

One of my favorite chroniclers of mostly vanished English village life is Miss Read, who has a series of books...I think I have collected them all..about several school teachers in Cotswold villages from the Victorian era to the World Wars. In the 20th century many rural schools were supported or maintained by the church and participated in church festivals.

The Harvest Festival was an important part of the Cotswold villages still so close to the seasons and agricultural roots of the area. The children had the job of decorating the church with produce from their farms and gardens and took great pride in doing so. Harvest loaves are baked as well.

From Over The Gate by Miss Read published in 1964:

For most of us in Fairacre our Harvest Festival is a well-loved and well-supported institution.  It is, after all, a public thanksgiving for the fulfilment of a year's hard work in the fields and gardens, and a brief breathing space before tackling the next year's labours.

Mr. Roberts, the local farmer, gives a mammoth Harvest Home supper in his biggest barn, at this season, but naturally it is the farm workers and their friends who attend this jollification. The service at St. Patrick's caters for the whole village....

The children...decorate the prews and other alloted portions of the church and we guard our privilege jealously. On Saturday the ladies of the village come with armfuls of flowers and greenery to do their share, but they always find that the children have done their part first.

Usually we tie little bunches of corn (Yanks, that's wheat to you!) to the pew heads, and arrange marrows, shiny apples, onions, giant potatoes and any other contribution which will not whither or fade, along the ledges and window sills which we know by ancient custom are 'ours'.

Thanks so much for joining me, and I hope as you reflect on the many things we have to be thankful for during this Thanksgiving time, you can carry it with you daily in the future. We are so blessed!   

Below is the list of some of the blog parties I will be part of and there is the linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! And I love to read your comments, and can find you to visit!

Mosaic Monday

No Place Like Home

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage & Garden

An InLinkz Link-up