February 2024 – Love the Love
Love the Love Hopeless and hopeful romantics take special note of Saint Valentine’s Day, which comes yearly on February 14th, for anyone new to the subject. My girlfriends and I celebrated Galantines Day* long before the word was coined. With such a big crew of young women, there was always someone breaking up, someone newly paired, someone single […]
January 2024 – Easy Elegance in the New Year
On the highway, the Alley, the sea wall and the Beach, all night, fireworks. Every New Year begins with loud noises and fireworks. This frenzy is soon followed by New Year’s Resolutions. This custom has always made me a bit uncomfortable, as some of these resolutions appear to be insincere, doomed to failure or perhaps […]
January 2024 – Afternoon Tea Reception for 100
Most Photos Courtesy Tiffany Pedulla Menu Tea Sandwiches: Chutney Cheese, Coronation Chicken, and Cucumbers Beet Pickled Deviled Eggs Topped with House-Pickled Okra Tomato scallion tartlets Cheese Straws Savory Black Pepper Scones Strawberries Raspberry Lamingtons Petite Pistachio Cakes Queen’s Shortbread Chocolate Pinwheels Blood Orange Poppyseed Cookies The Grand Trifle Hot Tea: Tulsi Rose, San Pellegrino […]
December 2023 – Joyful Gelatin
Snow Geese Snow Geese glide on midnight currents Like a constellation in the sky-dark waves, Each a feathery messenger twinkling white, Each a diamond in the crown of the Sea Queen. In slow unison, they float in rocking motion Into the kind night. Watch them; float with them In the winter water world. They […]
December 2023 – Featured Holiday Cookie: Rugelach
Featured Holiday Cookie: Rugelach We all have our favorite cookie recipes we pull out in December. That said, are we not also on the lookout for fabulous new cookie recipes? Who hasn’t been tempted to try a new and improved cut-out gingerbread cookie or bourbon balls rolled in coconut? Edible glitter-covered thumbprints, wafer paper-decorated […]
November 2023 – The Mount, Lenox, Massachusetts
es Three lifelong interests of mine came together early: reading novels, afternoon tea, and interior design. I mostly read English novels set in the mid-1880s to mid-1900s. I so enjoyed the leisurely accounts of country house weekends and motor trips to London, the world created in this era. However bucolic and enjoyably languid, eventually all […]
November 2023 – Giving Thanks for Persimmons
Persimmon Bread Nobody bakes Persimmon Bread in the spring, Or in the summer for that matter. Persimmons are autumn’s glorious gift, The last free fruit that ripens when it wishes When the maple leaves, persimmons’ ancient twin, Turn the smoky sweet orange hue Of dawn over the foothills. You can’t buy Persimmon Bread in the […]
October 2023 – Eating in the Big City
At Last Sudden rain falls through October’s lingering plumeria blossoms, Turning in twilight’s trade winds. The sidewalks shine in the streetlight’s wet glow, And walkers in flip-flops and aloha shirts Hurry to bus stops, Parked cars, overhangs, Their little doggies on leashes, Damp beside them. Old time rock ‘n roll wafts Through the drizzle […]
October 2023 – Attention to Detail
When we talk about drinking tea as a moment of rest in our day, we mean taking a moment to reflect and relax, to change our attention from the outside world to the inner world. When we share tea with others, we are inviting them to a different kind of space than the usual hectic […]
September 2023 – Simple Snacks at Summer’s End
September can surprise us. In areas with a traditional four-season climate, such as Canada and the Northern United States, September can bring the first hints of fall with cooler mornings, gentle rain and the initial signs of the glorious and colorful shift soon to take place in the autumn landscape. In recent years, however, the […]
