The Ladies' Tea Guild

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Tea Bloggers' Choice Awards: And the 2012 winners are ...

Association of Tea Bloggers
The results are finally in!  I am ashamed to say I haven't tried most of these teas, but that means I now have a great excuse to buy more tea: I have to get to know the winning teas!  These are the winners of the Tea Bloggers' Choice Awards for 2012.  


  • Unblended/Unflavored Black :  Teavivre Yunnan Dian Hong Golden Tip 
  • Blended/Flavored Black:  Harney and Sons Earl Grey Supreme 
  • Unblended/Unflavored Green:  Den's Tea Gyokuro Kin 
  • Blended/Flavored Green:  Aiya Tea Matcha Infused Sencha 
  • Unblended/Unflavored Oolong: Teavivre Jin Xuan Milk Oolong
  • Blended/Flavored Oolong: Naivetea Lychee Oolong
  • Unblended/Unflavored White: Rishi-Silver Needle Premium
  • Blended/Flavored White: Art of Tea Coconut Creme White Tea
  • Unblended/Unflavored Puerh: Rishi Ancient Puerh Classic
  • Blended/Flavored Puerh: Stash Black Forest Cake Puerh
  • Herb Blend: David's Tea Chocolate Rocket
  • Single Herb: David's Tea Spearmint

Have you tried these teas?  What do you think of them? 


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Gardening operations for September 1858

Grandma's Graphics.

This is from one of the many long-winded instruction books available on Google Books: Inquire Within For Anything You Want To Know, from 1858.

1038. SEPTEMBER.—Flowers of the month.—Clematis, or traveller’s joy, arbutus, and meadow saffron.
1039. Gardening Operations.—Plant crocuses, scaly bulbs, and evergreen shrubs.  Propagate by layers and cuttings of all herbaceous plants, currant, gooseberry, and other fruit trees.  Plant out seedling pinks.  Sow onions for spring plantation, carrots, spinach, and Spanish radishes in warm spots.  Earth up celery.  House potatoes and edible bulbs.  Gather pickling cucumbers.  Make tulip and mushroom beds.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Autumn bonnet fashions from September 1855.

The Monitor, 1855.  Image from The Costumer's Manifesto.

The following is from Godey's Lady's Book, of course!

“PEOPLE,” in the Grundy sense, are beginning to arrive from watering-places and the country, with the first demand of absentees, fall bonnets.  Belgian straws, satin straws of mixed colors, as brown and white, black and white, or Leghorns, are the decided favorites.  The first is trimmed with a mixture of ribbon and black blonde as simply as may be, with perhaps a few field-flowers inside the cap, or a bouquet on one side, mixed with lace.  One of the most elegant we have seen had a large crimson poppy, with a black heart; buds and leaves arranged around it, as above; the strings were, of course, a rich crimson and black ribbon.  This bonnet was appropriately worn with a black silk dress and mantle.  Leghorns are much trimmed with straw in bands, bouquets, rosettes, etc.  Black and white satin straws are the favorite bonnets in half mourning; they have black taffeta ribbon and straw gimps, mingled in loops, bands, and bows.  Those who have had transparent straws through the summer sometimes prefer to have them made up over dark shades of blue or green to purchasing entirely new bonnets.  Most of the fancy braids will do up to look almost as well as new for a second season, particularly French lace straws, and even Neapolitans.  The autumn ribbons are, as usual, very rich in color and variety of shading.  Plaids and strips or moire and velvet, with taffeta, either in the same or contrasting colors, are the favorites.  Never was there a season when ribbons were more in use for dresses, mantles, even chemisettes and  undersleeves.  In all our large cities, “ribbon stores have become a feature.”  They sometimes have embroideries also; but other establishments deal in nothing else.  Every hue of the rainbow—every shade of heaviness or delicacy in material is represented.  Velvet, moire, taffeta, gauze, and mixtures of all these, in widths from half an inch to six inches, are to be found."

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
-- William Cowper (1731-1800)
"The Winter Evening" (Book Four), _The Task_ (1784)