Tuesday Cuppa Tea Pumpkin Spice Tea Tray

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea.

This is a favorite scripture...

My times are in your hands

Psalm 31:15a

and it has been a week that week...just got over the sinus infection...then having an allergic reaction to a change in coloring in a new sourced med by my pharmacy that gave me a migrane...sigh...hadn't had one in 20 years! Back to old manufacturer and...starts to dissipate...the joys of science!

So it's a tea tray in the sunroom...with packaged cookies! Lol!

When life gives you lumps in the road...make do!

I am calling this my Pumpkin Spice tea tray! Because I have out the Republic of Tea Pumpkin Spice black tea that I always seem to switch to in September...

I have put the tray on my grandmother's trunk in the corner of the room...and used a hand made crewel embroidered English tray cloth from 1930s with pretty flowers...

My teapot is a fun one from Sadler in their English Country Cottages line...unfortunately, they decided to discontinue the whole series' of figural teapots a few months ago...sad...

The design is called Ivy House, and I love the shape and Tudor timbering. There's a dog and a cat in the doorway too!

For tea today, I have both a teacup and a mug...as often my husband prefers it...his Parkinson's Disease makes it wasier for him to drink from a mug and not rattle or spill from the tremor....

The cup in saucer, really a teacup trio, is by Johnson Brothers in their Olde English Countryside pattern of brown transferware with hand colored accents. I do love brown transferware!

This is a 1970s set, but the pattern was made from the 1920s. Johnson Brothers began in 1883 and in 1968 was swept into the Wedgwood Group and through subsequently, like so many, into WWRD...Waterford, Wedgwood Royal Doulton which was acquired by Fiskars in 2015. In 2007 they had moved most of production to Indonesia, especilly their famous Friendly Village line...it will be interesting to see what happens next...

My husband's mug is by Dunoon in a design called Cottage Paths by artist Sue Scullard from 2005. There were 3 different designs in the series, all with a different type of cottage, cottage gardens and a cat somewhere in the design. See the cat???

Dunoon...Hooray, hooray! is still made in the United Kingdom...stoneware in Scotland and bone china at their Stone facitility just outside Stoke-on-Trent. We used to stock them when we had our bricks-and-mortar antiques and tea item shop, and loved going to the pottery every year to choose our designs. 

I added my glass pumpkin and a green sparkly one I have had for years with an oak leaf garland...I love the colors of fall!

As I mentioned...packaged goodies this week...with the sinus infection I was vegan, and then with the migraine I have to give it a few days for the allergy complications to subside, so here are the vegan Pecan Shortbread cookies for tea today...really not bad for vegan!

But we have so much to be thankful for, that joy just bubbles up in me...vegan or not! Lol!

Thanks so much for joinin me this week...have a cookie and some Pumpkin Spice tea, and enjoy the many things we have around us that bring us joy!
I will be joining:

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

Share Your Cup

Here is the Tuesday Cuppa Tea linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there!  I am so looking forward to visiting you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday Cuppa Tea Summer Glory And Autumn Enters

Autumn blessings to you...and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea!

Thank you to all you dear blogging friends for your thoughts and prayers. I finally have defeated the sinus infection and avoided having to take antibiotics.

Thanks to lots of teas...herbal, green and black...nasal rinses, probiotics, zinc, echinacea and being strict about my allergy non dairy diet, I am finally well again. I haven't had a problem like that for 6-7 years. But, then, we haven't had wildfire smoke like that here before. That finally cleared out with some rain.

I finally felt well enough on Thursday to have a little tea time in the sunroom,

mixing last elements of summer and autumn things as the season definitely has changed here...we are in the 40s in the morning...

I needed something with a bit of color for a back ground, so added a polychrome transferware charger I have...

The pattern is called Rural England. I love the mill and stream and the flower border...

The plate was made in the 1930s by Midwinter. Midwinter was acquired by Wedgwood in the early 1960s, and did some great mid century modern designs in their Stylecraft line...very groovy, and very different from this earlier design. If you have visited the blog often, you know Wedgwood has gone through several shuffles and is now owned by the Danish firm Fiskars...always interesting keeping up with the potteries...

This teacup is where my end of summer comes in...the Hydrangea patterned Summer Glory Chintz by Shelley...you knew I get a Shelley in here somewhere...

This Summer Glory teacup is from the 1950s, and is the ivory colorway...which I have never thought a good name for the color, but...

the interior is pale yellow. I would call it a pale peach or apricot, but that's just my opinion. The pattern number is 13648, and it is in the Ripon shape. 

And we need at teapot, so here is a 1950s Sadler pale yellow and gold large teapot....

This one has rather fancy gold flowers with heavy gold outlining. Cool! Lots of tea for everyone!

And for the tea...Republic of Tea's Cuppa Cake Tea Caramel Vanilla...a flavored black tea that is a lovely dessert tea...

I have other teacups for you...this is a teacup trio with an autumn leaves design called Windswept...

The bone china pattern is 1950s as well, with pink and grey green swirling leaves. The set is by Tuscan made by Plant. Later marks from the late 1960s-1970s use the name Plant Tuscan. The company has had it's share of changes, as all English potteries have. It was amalgamated into Wedgwood in 1972, and then permanently closed in 2006. I think Fiscars has all the patterns, etc, but whether the name will ever be resurrected is doubtful.

For a trea for tea, I have some Maple leaf shaped chocolate cream biscuits. During the couple of weeks prior to becoming ill with the smoke, we had friends visit and spent a day in Victoria, BC so brought home these biscuits...a favorite.

They are delicious! But since I was avoiding dairy, they have been sitting there languishing. So, now that I am recovering I hope to be eating them soon!

Also in Victoria, BC I found this little cookbook by a Victori author called Sarah's Tea Time that I will be sharing more from another time, by Sarah Amos.  Sarah is a Brit now living in Victoria. Besides lots of recipes it includes her lovely tea time drawings. Charming!

Thanks so much for joining me for tea today. It was so nice to finally feel able to join you all and welcome you all to Tuesday Cuppa Tea!

I am joining:

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

Share Your Cup

Here is the Tuesday Cuppa Tea linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there!  I am so looking forward to visiting you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday Cuppa Tea break this week...Storm Relief Links,W Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Hello my dear friends...as you know I have been dealing with wildfire smoke induced problems...this was a few days ago at around 7pm...

And this was 2 days ago at 7 am...so happy...things were clearing....

And this morning...it was raining! I was able to take a short walk without major weezing from the smoke...but I am still fighting a nasty sinus infection homeopathically...I don't want antibiotics! 

So...I am afraid I was not up to a tea...let alone that the light was a horrible orange until the last 2 days and wouldn't have photographed well...

so taking a break until next week to kick this thing!

I am also so saddened with the devastation of Harvey and now Irma, and just don't feel like a party....

Here are 2 great sites that give at least $.86 of every dollar to relief...

Please join me an donate if you are able to...

Samaritan's Purse

Salvation Army

And on a lighter note...

here is a really wonderful looking recipe for Pumpkin Bread Pudding which is real comfort food!

PUMPKIN BREAD PUDDING

Makes 6 servings

8 cups cubed croissants (1/2-inch cubes), toasted
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup crystallized ginger
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup caramel ice cream topping
2 tablespoons bourbon

1. Preheat oven to 350˚.
2. Spray 6 (8-ounce) ramekins with nonstick baking spray with flour.
3. In a large bowl, combine toasted croissant cubes, walnuts, raisins, and crystallized ginger.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together half-and-half, pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
5. Pour over croissant mixture, tossing gently to coat. Let stand for 30 minutes.
6. Divide mixture evenly between prepared ramekins.
7. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. (If the pudding begins to brown, cover loosely with foil.)
8. Remove from oven. Cool in ramekins for 10 minutes.
9. In a medium bowl, combine caramel topping and bourbon, whisking well. Serve over bread pudding.

With the sinus infection I have to be off all dairy products, so am not making this this week...hopefully next. It is so good! 

One of my favorites. And with all that folks are going through, comfort food is definitely in order.

Thanks for visiting, and I will see you with a tea post next week. Pray for Texas, Florida and all the areas impacted by both Harvey & Irma.

Commemorating Princess Diana Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea. 

I hope you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend, and the beginning of September...

Today I am actually sort of reposting a post from February of 2014 for 2 reasons...I am down with a sinus infection from the smoke we have had and secondly because last Wednesday, August 31, 2017 was the 20th anniversary of the tragic death of Princess Diana, which needs to be commemorated, sad though it is, so I am reposting a visit to an exhibit of her dresses called 

A Royal Exhibition - A Princess And A Queen at the Queen Mary ocean liner, now a hotel in Long Beach California.

My teacup today was made in 1981 by Wedgwood, England to commemorate the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer...

The applied bits are very thin and are applied with a palette knife...very painstaking work. We used to love visiting the Wedgwood pottery in Barlaston near Stoke-on-Trent to watch the process.

The teacup is made of a type of porcelain and stoneware called jasperware, and the white is hand applied by craftsmen onto the already formed and bisque fired base layer. 

The mark is hard to see. For later commemorative wares, Wedgwood added a print dedication or commemoration mark as well, but in 1981 it was the impressed mark only. 
Lady Diana Spencer became Princess Diana or Princess Di and became known as The People's Princess because of her empathy with the people she met in all walks of life.  As we all know, the Princess was killed in a car accident on August 31, 1997, but her popularity remains. Hence the exhibit we went to see...and the events commemorating the 20th anniversary of that sad date.

The exhibit of Royal memorabilia and about 40 of Princess Diana's dresses has toured the country. The exhibit passes on 50% of the proceeds in each city to charities in the area. This exhibit benefited The City Of Hope cancer center in Duarte, California and another breast cancer charity in the area. The exhibit was founded by 5 wealthy southern women who loved Princess Diana and combined their accumulation of things related to Diana and the British Royal family with a way to give to those in need.

The famous and venerable Cunard ocean liner Queen Mary was built in 1937 and retired as a hotel and conference venue in Long Beach in 1967, her 516th and final voyage.  We have been on Queen Mary 2 several times, but never sailed on this Queen Mary...wish we had...

The interior still has much of the gorgeous art deco wood paneling. I LOVED the elevator grill...

There are a number of tours available...here is a poster for one in the elevator heading for the Sun deck where we were seeing the Princess Diana exhibit and having tea in the tea room...

We peeked down a corridor where the hotel rooms are...cabins that are now period hotel rooms...

We also passed the bridge...which is roped off, but we could see what was once state-of-the art-propulsion and navigation equipment. Looks a bit different that being on the bridge last year of the Celebrity Millennium...

We weren't allowed to take photos of the exhibit but I found this on the website for the exhibit.......

Here is our ticket for Tea With The Princess which was what the package of the exhibit and tea in the tearoom was called...

We were there just before noon and it was quite quiet. We had tea in the tearoom, which was one of  the original dining rooms on the ship...

We had a set tea of :

Our choice of teas...we had English Breakfast, my husband's favorite...(he really likes PG Tips best!)

sandwiches: 

Shredded chicken and dried mango tossed in a a light curry aioli on wheat bread

Deviled egg salad and micro dijon greens served on pumpernickel bread

Scones:

Dried apricot and pecan scones

Devonshire cream, raspberry jam and lemon curd

Sweets:

Petit eclairs

Lemon tarts

Black And White mocha cake

We were so glad we had this mini tea, because others had twice as much at some of the other tables, and we could never have eaten it all! And since we were heading out on a cruise with the family the next day, we figured it would have gone to waste...or waist....

This is the Queen Mary from the hotel just around the bend we spent the night at. The Carnival ship we went out on, having just returned from the Panama Canal spent the night next to the Queen Mary...

We stayed at the Hotel Maya, a Doubletree that was more like a South Beach hotel, with a great outdoors South American restaurant called Fuego where we had a fabulous dinner...so good we forgot to take any photos! Very romantic....

And as we walked back to our patio room from the restaurant, we took some photos of the Queen Mary and the Carnival ship lit up and the bridge into the main part of Long Beach. A wonderful time!

For more info on the Wedgwood Royal Wedding teacup at Antiques And Teacups, just click on the photos.

So thanks for joining me on what was a wonderful trip and experience, with fond memories of a Princess and a Queen.

I will be joining:

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

Share Your Cup

Here is the Tuesday Cuppa Tea linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there!  I am so looking forward to visiting you!

An InLinkz Link-up