November tea, Giveaway Winner!

Hello dear friends... I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you are in the US. 

Ours, not so much. My husband has been dealing with a post surgery infection, and horrible nausea from the antibiotics. He finished those 2 days before Thanksgiving, so at least was ablt to enjoy the organic turkey breast I roasted for us. But it is now clear it has not cleared up, so back today for lab tests and more antibiotice...

But....we still have so much to be thankful for.

And the winner of the Jan Karon Shepherd's Abiding... via Random.org is

Margie Hunter!

please contact me 

There is an email button on the right sidebar, sorta far down...just scroll down. Or email me at antiques and teacups at gmail dot com

The following is a repost as I wasn't able to do a new tea post... hopefully next week!

I decided to do a quick tea with a fruit cup and saucer to go with some gluten free chocolate cookies from a baking mix I tried and Pumpkin Spice tea on our small tea table in the sunroom... so...

The first teacup is a Royal Albert Flower Of The Month November Chrysanthemums demitasse cup and saucer...a design you will see often on blogs this month...it is November! That's what's the fun of the series...a teacup for every month's birthdays!

This is from the late 1980s series, and was probably not made in England, because production was being moved to Indonesia at this time into the early 1990s. There are 2 older versions of the Flower Of The Month, and they are all wonderful designs! They were usually made in 3 sizes...the regular, this demitasse size and a teensy miniature size with a cup only 1.25 inches high and a 2.75 inch in diameter saucer! And there are collectors for every size!

This next cup and saucer is also a demitasse or after dinner coffee size, and was made by  E. Hughes in a line called Eucanos in the Somerset pattern only between 1930 and 1941. I love the jewel color fruit, and the heavy 24kt gold hand painted details. Lovely!

The number at the bottom is the British Registry mark, which records when the design was registered. The number is 708568 which identifies the design being recorded during 1924 to 1925, although the mark clarifies that the cup and saucer was actually made later somewhere between 1930 and 1941. The pottery closed in 1953.

For tea...the seasonal blends are coming out. This id the Republic Of Tea's Pumpkin Spice. They had it last year, and I really liked it so was glad to see it again available.  The tin holds 50 round teabags.  Tea Time magazine had an article this week about the re-thinking of the reputation of tea bags by Bruce Richardson you can read HERE.

This is the way Tea Forte' packages their tea. Celebrity Cruises has them at their Cafe' al Bacio...I am addicted to their Organic Estate Darjeeling, which I have a pot of every morning when on a ship.

I also have a cobalt blue art glass pumpkin on the table...did you notice it? This was our souvenir from a week in Alaska on the Ruby Princess last may. In Skagway, we visited Jewell Gardens Organic Gardens & Glass...which was influenced by our local Seattle Chihuly Gardens & Glass and includes a glass blowing hot shop as well...

The pumpkin was available at the gift shop, and they shipped, so I didn't have to worry about carrying it home in my luggage. Most of the time, it lives in one of the windows in our sun room...on the high one, barricaded by other things, so out cat Tinker can't get to it...he rules the other low windows all around the rest of the room.

Thanks for joining me. I had hoped to do Christmas decorating this weekend, so hopefully today when our doctor and lab sessions are done.

Have a lovely week!

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving address, Giveaway Reminder, Thanksgiving Joys

Thanksgiving greetings to you! I THINK I am organized, how about you???

And I wanted to share again, the 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln during the civil war. 

It still resonates today...

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere in the theatre of the military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. 

Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at seas and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, comment to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union. 
Abraham Lincoln, 1863

I want to remind you about the drawing for a hardback copy of Jan Karon's Shepherd's Abiding. 
To enter, please click HERE 
and go to the giveaway post and leave a comment THERE of ENTER to be entered to win!
Ends Sunday, Nov. 25th.

I did this cross stitch a few years ago... simple, but infinitely powerful...especially in my life this year.
Let us give thanks... and I do, daily.
Maybe things are difficult, but with Christ...
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me...
Philippians 4:13

And I wanted to mention, that on my websites, I have Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, either already in progress or beginning tomorrow Nov. 22nd...

Just click the graphics to go to the shops.

To you, my dear blog friends, and your families...
a blessed Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, Jan Karon Shepherd's Abiding Christmas Book Giveaway!

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving this week! I can't believe it is already that time of year... with my husband's illness we have missed half of it!
He is struggling with an infection and the side effects of an antibiotic, so things are still less than predictable day by day...
But..
We have so much to be thankful for!

I thought I would share...because it coincided with this week 2 years ago... an afternoon tea we had in Victoria, BC during the visit of Prince William and Catherine and the kids...
We had a Canadian friend call who wanted to get together for a few hours while she was enroute on Vancouver Island, so we decided to go.  After our time with her, we decided on having afternoon tea. 

It happened to be during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Vancouver Island, so we knew the Fairmont Empress was having a special Royal tea for 3 weeks...but, as we were last minute, it was booked up, so we had tea at the hotel Grand Pacific where we usually stay when in Victoria....

It is much more modern than the Empress, and convenient for us being right across the street from our Black Ball Ferry terminal. Their Pacific restaurant host their West Coast Afternoon tea... It's pretty minimalist decor...

I want to apologise in advance for the photos taken with my phone camera...not the best, but...this was the table setting...and notice the tea bowl instead of cup and saucer....the menu was definitely east/west and west coast in composition...lovely! And they have a tea sommelier!

There was a large selection of teas...green, white, black blended and wellness teas....I chose the Darjeeling...my favorite...and my husband had the Grand Pacific Blend especially blended for the hotel by Silk Road, a local tea blender, that is mostly a green tea.

The sommelier presented first the tea to show and explain them...The Organic Grand Pacific Tea is described as "A rejuvenating blend of ginger, green tea, lemongrass, lavender, rose, citrus and rose hips" and was delicious!

Each pot had a really cool locking steeper basket from the London Pottery Company.

The menu for the foods served was...in case you can't read this...

Amuse...

which in this case was a tempura Spot Prawn...a large local shrimp delicacy... skewered on a red pepper coulis...

Then the tower arrived...and contained savories on the bottom, then the scones and desserts on top:

Savories

Free run organic egg salad on smoked salmon rye bread pudding

Sake compressed cucumber on okonomi-yaki

Lime and sweet chile endamame

Chicken liver pate' on crostini

mini Dungeness Crab cake

Dill and baby Shrimp on mini croissant

Scones and  Sweets

Pumpkin spice financier

Vanilla bean scones with cream and jam

Flavoured scone...

ours were orange cranberry

Lemon raspberry mousse slice

Salted caramel chocolate tart...

absolutely incredible delicious...glad they were small...I think...

Praline profiteroles

assorted truffles and macarons

We didn't finish it all, and it was really delicious. They also sent us home with small ins of the Grand Pacific tea as momentos. Very nice!

My Jim Shore Thanksgiving angel is out...and I came across this graphic on Facebook and shared it on my page, but it certainly puts the last few weeks in a nutshell...a refocusing on blessings...

As promised...here is the information on my giveaway...

just in time for Christmas

For fans of Jan Karon's Mitford and Father Tim

or

to get a chance to try a wonderful, heartwarming series...

I am giving away a hardback copy with dust jacket of 

Shepherd's Abiding

I have the hardback too, a gift from my husband when it came out which I read again every year about now... 
My sweet husband found 

this last spring while getting his blood drawn at the hospital.  
There is a Friends Of The Library honor book kiosk there at the hospital, and thought I might have someone to give it to...

And that's one of you, dear blog friends!

The drawing will be open to US and Canada readers only, because I want it to get to you as soon as possible before Christmas.

To enter:

Leave the comment Enter Me between today,  Saturday November 17th 

and Monday, November 25th.

I will draw a name via Random.org and announce the winner on my Tuesday Cuppa Tea blog post on Monday, November 26th...Cyber Monday!

I will hopefully reach the winner quickly via email to get your snail mail address, so if you are not a blogger, please leave an email address, or check the blog post and contact me through my sidebar Email Me link.

Veteran's Day, Remembrance Day

One hundred years ago, November 11...

at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918...

the Armistice was signed officially ending World War I

Remembering those who sacrificed so much...it was to be the War To End All Wars...

Wish it had been so...

Although we have set aside Monday, November 12th as a day of remembrance here in the US, in Europe...and especially England... today, November 11th is Remembrance Sunday, which culminates a Week Of Remembrance, with gatherings and commemorations all across the country.

Photograph by Marcia Gains Photography

To those who have or are serving...

thank you.

Still here! Fall Reports, Time Change, Peach Blueberry Coffee Cake

Hi there! Just wanted to check in and let you know I am still here!

Great report from the cardiologist this week...best in years, so that is a blessing.

On the Parkinson's Disease front, we are adapting to a new phase lifestyle change... probably brought on by changes from the last 8 months of other health issues.

We now have a strict schedule and need to carefully plan, in a 4 hour dosage window, when he has protein. The problem is, is that now interferes with medication absorption.

Doesn't sound like much, but it's a real challenge...so...

Photo Pinterest, source unknown

And speaking of time issues...

November has arrived...so a reminder to change your clock if you are in the US.

 We "Fall Back" tonight, or early in the morning tomorrow, November 4th... MUCH better than the spring forward direction.

I had time to make a dessert this week in between labs and doctor appointments, and because I had the last of the organic peaches to use and needed some comfort food!

So I pulled a post out from 2015 which was very popular which I hope you will enjoy.

"So I says ""My dear if you could give me a cup of tear to clear my muddle of a head, I  should better understand your affairs." " So we had tea and the affairs too..."  ~ Charles Dickens, Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy

My tea today in the sunroom features a family set from the 1950s, brought home from West Germany in the 1950s, bought at the Arzberg pottery, which had been in business since the 1880s.

The thin porcelain set has a great design of seeds, leaves and pods...perfect for fall. They also got a set for my aunt, which was left to my sister because it had a pink and grey modern star design while this was more me. We got to choose bedroom furniture in high school...she chose Danish Modern, I went for French Provincial!

The mark is simple...just the name and the shape number. The reason it doesn't say Made In Germany is because it was purchased in Germany, therefore was not required to have the Made In Germany stamp. If it had been ordered from the USA, it would have. Anyway...a wonderful family set! What are you sipping your tea from this week?

And for a treat for tea...I made a Peach Blueberry Coffee Cake, which is a family recipe from my mother. I have seen some similar ones... I think she got it from a flour bag if I remember correctly, but I have adapted it for my allergies, etc.

The  photo below is from the 2015 blog post...the one below it from this week...

Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake

Makes in round 9 inch cake

Cake:

1 cup of flour...(I used half white winter wheat from our local organic farm store)

1/2 cup granulated sugar...(I used organic unrefined/bleached)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp dried orange rind

1/4 cup butter...(I used Vegan)

1/2 tsp Vanilla

1 large egg

1/2 cup milk...(I used almond milk)

1 can of sliced peaches...(12-14 ounces) well drained.. this time I used sliced fresh

1/2 cup or more fresh or frozen blueberries

Glaze:

1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar (Powdered sugar)

1/4 to 1/3 tsp Almond extract

2 to 2 1/2 tsp milk...(I used Almond milk)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease an 9 inch round cake pan.

Sift the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the orange rind and mix well. Cut the butter into small pieces and using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut it into the mix until the mix resembles crumbs.

Whisk together the egg, milk and vanilla and add to the dry ingredients, and stir with a fork to mix. Pour 2/3 of the mix into the prepared pan, and arrange the peach slices on top, filling in and around with the blueberries. Pour the remaining batter on top, spreading to cover as much as possible.

Bake 25-30 minutes until cooked through...don't test an peach...and golden brown at the edges. Cool on a rack in the pan for 20-30 minutes before adding glaze.

Whisk together the glaze ingredients being careful not to add too much milk. Drizzle all over the cake and let cool completely before cutting.

Thanks so much for joining me! 

And thank you so much for your kind comments, emails, thoughts and prayers.

With the Lord's help... we can do this!

May your week be filled with friends, cups of tea and joy!

Just wanted to say...am having a 15% Off sale with coupon code THANKFUL at Antiques And Teacups! Come by a visit! Ends Nov. 13th.