It's Apple Blossom Time for Tea - Visiting Day!

There's a time to work and a time to play.

Today is a play day.  Today I'm  going visiting.  Today I'm not playing the part of hostess.  Today I am playing the part of guest!

Today it's my friend Andy who is playing the part of host.  He's  invited me to tea.

Andy has also invited my friend Evelyna to tea.

When was the last time you were invited to tea?

When you give, good things come back to you.  If you entertain now and then, chances are,  from time to time you will be entertained as well.

It's another beautiful day in my neighborhood, a grand day to go visiting, but then any day is a grand day for friendship and visiting.

Evelyna and I arrive at Andy's house and we are greeted by a glorious apple tree bursting with color.  It is apple blossom time you know!

 Evelyna  is so delighted with this tree she runs up to it and caresses its  blossoms  I can't blame her.  I want to do the same thing.

The beauty of nature is all around  us here in Andy's yard.

There are all sorts of  romantic, old fashioned garden structures at every turn.  They  enchant us.

We approach the wisteria-covered arbor and slowly make our way to the door , all the while admiring the beauty of nature on this lovely Spring day.

When finally at the door we knock and...

Andy appears - all smiles.  "We're here", we say.  "And we're bearing hostess gifts.  Evelyna brought one of her famous pumpkins rolls  and I brought Andy one of my favorite  books of spiritual meditation.

We sit relaxing like ladies of leisure,  talking to Andy from the next room while he  fusses in the kitchen with last minute details...

and then it's off to the tea table which is set beautifully just for our pleasure.  How wonderful!

More fresh apple blossoms grace the table and Andy has set  little boxes of chocolates at  our plates.  They serve as sweet  favors.

Lunch is simple, but delicious - chicken salad croissants accompanied by fresh fruit.

Andy even decorated our plates with apple blossoms.  What a guy!  When it's apple blossom time we should all take advantage of the splendor and bring those blossoms in to be enjoyed up close.  That's true of all the lovely flowers blooming in our Springtime gardens - lilacs, lily of the valley... Everything!

The ice water on our table was garnished with orange slices and the tea was cherry flavored.  There was also a delicious broccoli soup.

 Our tummies were happy and full, but there was more.  Evelyna,  being a master baker, decided to bring  a bit of dessert,

It's nice to have friends who are master bakers... masters at anything, especially if they share their mastery with  their friends.

Evelyna brought us two goodies.  She made  raspberry lemon tartletts.  They consisted of a butter cookie shell filled with lemon curd and garnished with fresh bursting  raspberries and  mint.  She also made walnut mocha squares.  These squares are a Croatian recipe.  They consist of brown sugar pastry topped with espresso infused mocha cream  (YUM!)  and garnished with chocolate beans.

Evelyna  tells us the delicious chocolate beans are  hard to find, but she has a source -  shops called  "Earth Fare".  They carry the luscious little gems should you want to buy some for yourself.

[caption id="attachment_1270" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Evelyna's goodies[/caption]

We ate.  We drank. (tea)  We chatted.

 Though all of us are  busy, it is so very nice, and quite civilized,  to pause now and then  taking time for tea -  taking time to appreciate  nature -  taking time to foster friendship.  Two hours of this repast and off we went... refreshed!  We returned to our lives  with renewed contentment and the  warm fuzzy glow that only beauty and friendship can provide.

So

Take Time!   Take Tea!   Take Joy!

On Learning

"Learned Institutions ought to be favorite  objects with every free people."

These words were contained in a letter James Madison wrote to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822.

I love to spend time in and around Learned Institutions.  Don't you?

Recently I was strolling the campus of UCLA in Westwood, California.

My son Patrick is there, soon to complete a Masters in statistics.

Years ago I too was accepted into a graduate  program at UCLA,  music for me,  but my parents felt it was just too far away from home.  Never mind that all four of their parents were born and raised in Poland, leaving their families behind, never to see them again!

But for me, all's well that ends well.  I attended Boston University instead of UCLA and not only liked that school very much, but in Boston  I also met Bill who would become my husband. Bill attended and  graduated from  Boston University too.

But enough about my past.

Now, just to sit in the environment of a learned institution can inspire me  to learn and grow intellectually.

Maybe it's watching others reading and learning.

Maybe it's the architecture.

Maybe nature has something to do with it.

Most college campuses could double as beautiful parks.

A walk through campus, at least a campus like UCLA in Southern California, is like walking through a botanical garden.

Intelligence seems to be in the air.

 It mingles with the scent of trees, flowers and other assorted plants.  Do students here appreciate what they have?  I do hope so.

And of course the  classroom  radiates much intelligence and offers learning and inspiration.

I sit quietly in the back of the room watching my son lecture a statistics class.  (He's a teaching assistant here at UCLA.)

I watch him help undergraduates with their learning.

 Being a fine arts major this class is Greek to me, but nevertheless it inspires me to learn as I watch others learn.  I'm inspired to delve deeply into my own subjects of interest.

Music * Art *  Literature * Nature * Culinary Arts * History* Philosophy * Science * etcaetera, ectaeterorun.

  What subjects interest you?

Shall I practice some Beethoven sonatas?

Read some learned books?

Experiment growing plants in my garden?

Read about art  and artists and then express myself with paint brush and paint?

Learned institutions do a lot for us, but we can continue to learn and grow in all sorts of ways.

Learning is fun!

Look at the fun my son has with his very smart friends who are all  doctoral candidates in statistics  at UCLA.

 After all,  work and no play make people very stuffy, but all play and no work  make people "Not too smart"!

What Fun these people have when they're not filling their heads with knowledge!

Of course we can't all drop everything and enroll in one university after another, but have you ever heard of a company called Great Courses ( previously known as The Teaching Company)?  This company encourages the joy of  learning by offering  lectures from a variety of professors who teach at some of our  greatest universities.  If we can't get ourselves to The Culinary Institute of America and take a course with Chef-Instructor Bill Briwa why not buy his 24 lectures entitled "The Everyday Gourmet"?  Maybe we're more in the mood for neuroscience.  Then we should buy the 36 lectures of Sam Wang who is Professor of Molecular Biology and Neuroscience at Princeton.

I may not be able to enroll in, and earn a degree from, dozens of the great universities around the world,  and maybe you can't either, but with the help of the Great Courses company I can learn from their top teachers and grow in knowledge.  So many fields of study are offered:  science and mathematics, history,  literature and language, religion and theology, business and economics, philosophy, fine arts.  You really ought to get their catalog (1.800.832. 2412 or find them on line at www.thegreatcourses.com) and see what they have to offer, and no, I'm not on commission, but I should be!

Maybe the  next course I'll  investigate will be "How music and Mathematics relate",  taught by David Kung of St. Mary's College of Maryland.  The 12 lectures promise to help me gain perspective on these two great achievements of human culture - music and math - and  understand the fascinating connections and intricacies of both.  (This course might help me have an intelligent conversation with my son in statistics.)

"The world is so full of a number of things, I think we should all be as happy as kings"

so said Robert Louis Stevenson.

I agree, don't you?

So let's get busy learning about as many of those things as we can.

Afternoon tea, philosophy, and me

 As my "dead friend" Mister Rogers used to sing:

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

a beautiful day for a neighbor

Would you be mine?  Could you be mine?

Won't you be my neighbor" ...

and join me for afternoon tea?

The dogwood tree is beginning to bloom

I see it out my windows bringing me joy at every appearance.

so the porch is the perfect place to entertain guests today.

and some of the hydrangeas are changing from green to a lovely lavender color

It truly is a beautiful day in my neighborhood, the perfect day for a tea party --- but then any day is a perfect day to share with friends.

 Most times when I entertain I like to experiment with a new recipe.  Today that recipe comes from the book "Tea and Inspiration" by Mary Pielenz Hampton.

I'll attempt to make little tarts called "Maids of Honor".  Legend has it that  these tarts were enjoyed very much by Henry VIII.  Supposedly, he came upon the maids of his wife Catherine eating them, so he named these tea goodies in their honor.

If these tarts were fit for a king, queen and her maids of honor I should think they would be just fine for me and my guests

So let's gets started.

First I make the pastry by using my mother's tried and true recipe.

2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 3/4 cup crisco, 5 T cold water

Mix in a cuisinart for a minute and you have a lovely pastry dough.

Now  to roll out the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and cut 3 inch circles out using a wine glass.

Next, we place the rounds into a greased and floured muffin tin pressing the pastry to the sides.

Now to prepare the filling

In a mixing bowl, lightly beat 2 egg yolks.  Beat in the 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of blanched ground almonds, 1 tbsp flour, and 1 tsp finely grated lemon peel or lemon zest.  Slowly add the 2 tbsp of heavy whipping cream.  Carefully spoon about 1 tablespoon of mixture into each pastry cup.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the filling is set and a light golden brown color.

 Carefully remove from tins and place on a wire rack until completely cooled.

And we have a yummy "Maid of Honor" tart.

[caption id="attachment_1113" align="aligncenter" width="300"] An up close look at the tart[/caption]

With my baking finished it's now time to organize the tea.  Because I'm not sure which teas my guests enjoy I will be offering them a selection.

I set out four tea pots ready to be of service once my guests declare which teas they' each prefer.

And because I'm never sure if my baking experiment will turn out I like to have insurance.  Today the insurance is a fruit and custard tart.

This tart along with my Maids of honor mini tarts could be enough, but being Polish and the daughter of a great hostess, I was taught to always have more than enough goodies at a party.   I purchased a few more things which I'll slice and make ready for my guests in the hope that they will surely find something that appeals to them.

Now that the food is under control it's time to check that the setting is ready.  Let's go out to the porch.

I set out the tea cups, adjust the silver and napkins, check that the tea treats are nicely arranged and start the music.

So you see there's not much to planning a tea party.  Afternoon tea is an exercise in gentility and like letter writing it is almost a lost art in today's world, but I think it is an art worth our time and attention.

Amy, one of my favorite pen friends who lives in Kingston, Pennsylvania, recently sent me a quotation.  The words are from Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher and the father of Taoism.  It reads:

"To attain knowledge, add things every day.  To attain wisdom, subtract things every day."

Lao Tzu's words make sense to me.  If we clear our lives of clutter and create time for learning and solitary reflection or reflection with others, we just might find our lives to be more rich, in fact GOLDEN.

Any minute my guests will be arriving.  Today I have 3 ladies invited to tea --- an old friend, Barbara; a new friend, Gerry ( who happens to have been my high school English teacher.  I never knew Gerry well back then , but after meeting her at a wedding recently I thought it would be lovely to get to know her now); and Gerry is bringing a friend, Sandy. (Sandy was in my high school graduating class but we never knew each other back then).

Someone old, someone new, someone borrowed, and this time only one borrowed guest, not the usual two,  because my seating  arrangement only has room for four.  And here they are.

I always ask my guests to be prepared to share a passion or favorite thing so Barbara brought a book of the poetry she's written.  Barbara was a teacher and she's a very good writer.

Sandy talked all about the joys of being a grandmother.  She told us of her fun in babysitting  her little granddaughter.

Here you see Sandy and Gerry looking over some of my letters for I shared my delight in the Art of Letter writing.

Gerry told us all about her mother who almost lived to be 100 years old.  Her mother's passion was sewing and all forms of needlework so now Gerry's passion is to find a home for all those things her mother made.  Each month she gives something away and this month it's a pretty apron.

Guess who gets that pretty apron?  If you guessed me, you're right!

Now I have that apron to wear at my next tea!  As you may know when you give good things come back to you and with this tea I gained a pretty apron.

a lovely bowl of flowers thanks to Sandy

and the best gift of all - new and old friends.

Back in 1895 there was talk that it was probably inevitable that the excessive nervous tension and high speed of life was bound to have a deteriorating effect on all branches of art including  the art of conversation.

They were right to worry for with time it's only gotten worse.  Letter writing, afternoon tea, in person conversations are truly taking a hit.

But

 the good news is all these arts are still there for us.  They're just waiting for our participation.  Take Lao Tzu's advice and cut out some clutter, make some tea, read  an intelligent book, write a letter and/or invite some friends for an afternoon soire,

The mere chink of cups and saucers tune the mind to happy repose.

So till next time

Relax and live richly