The Ladies' Tea Guild
Showing posts with label April. Show all posts
Showing posts with label April. Show all posts

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Back from the Cat Rescue Tea!

guest place setting.  Photo: Elizabeth Urbach
Photo: Elizabeth Urbach
Well, our 5th annual Cat Rescue tea fundraiser was another success!  We called it the "Downton Tabby" Tea this year, and got a lot of chuckles from the guests (in the photo to the left, the faces of the _Downton Abbey_ characters have been replaced with cat faces!).  We sold out both days, packing in 44 guests the first day and 42 the second day, and added champagne to the menu (for an extra charge) for the first time.  The champagne was more popular than we thought it would be, so it will probably be included again for next year.  Also for the first time, this year's menu was completely homemade; we replaced the packaged (even gourmet-quality) cake and cookies from Trader Joe's with homemade treats.  Although we didn't have the cute little kitty sugar cookies, we did have cat paw-shaped chocolates!  This year' menu was:

fig, bacon & cream cheese tea sandwich
(The Kittens' Favorite) egg salad tea sandwich
pear, bleu cheese & walnut tea sandwich
cucumber & herbed cream cheese tea sandwich
goat cheese & sun-dried tomato tea sandwich
curried chicken salad tea sandwich
olive tapenade on a cracker
currant scone with orange zest
Photo: Elizabeth Urbach 
Meyer lemon curd
soft butter
spiced plum, summer strawberry, or apricot jam
fresh grapes
nut cup
chocolate fudge

Photo: Elizabeth Urbach
Everyone got all of the above, as well as bottomless pots of tea, and two tea favors.  We served an Earl Grey Creme blend from local tea shop Satori Tea Company (as well as Peet's Earl Grey when we ran out of the Earl Grey Creme because it was so popular), and a spiced rooibos blend called The Cat's Pajamas from Thompson Tea Company.  All the tea was donated by the companies that sell it.  The tea favors this year were the aforementioned cat paw-shaped chocolates, and a blooming tea
Photo: Elizabeth Urbach 
from Thompson Tea Company called Cat Whiskers.  Everyone seemed to have a great time, as well as enjoying the beautiful surroundings of the Victorian house where the event was located, and the raffle and silent auction items.  I haven't seen the final tally yet, but I'm sure we raised a few thousand dollars for 13th Street Cat Rescue!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Another Titanic event to attend!

View of the Rose Garden from June 2004.
Although the majority of Titanic commemorative events happened last month, on or around the actual anniversary of the sinking, there are still a few here and there, providing more opportunities for wearing the costumes that everyone worked so diligently to complete.  The next one on the calendar for the San Jose area is the South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild's Titanic Survivor's Reunion Picnic.  Here are the details:

Titanic Survivors’ Reunion Tea: Imagine yourself as someone who might have been a passenger on the Titanic, and survived the tragic sinking.  We'll get together for a picnic to celebrate our survival and remember those who were lost.  Gentlemen and older children welcome!
Date: Saturday, May 12, 2012.
Location: San Jose Municipal Rose Garden (near the Rosicrucian Museum)
Cost: $25 per person
Suggested Costume: day or dressy afternoon dress, 1900 through 1915, all classes.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

"Oh, Fair to See", by Christina Rossetti

Fruit tree in bloom.  FreeFoto.com
Oh! Fair To See 
Oh, fair to see 
Bloom-laden cherry tree, 
Arrayed in sunny white: 
An April day’s delight, 
Oh, fair to see! 

Oh, fair to see 
Fruit-laden cherry tree, 
With balls of shining red 
Decking a leafy head, 
Oh, fair to see! 
-- by Christina Rossetti 

Thursday, April 12, 2012

An April Day.


 An April Day
When the warm sun, that brings
Seed-time and harvest, has returned again,
‘T is sweet to visit the still wood, where springs
The first flower of the plain.

I love the season well,
When forest glades are teeming with bright forms,
Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell
The coming-on of storms.

From the earth’s loosened mould
The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives;
Though stricken to the heart with winter’s cold,
The drooping tree revives.

The softly-warbled song
Comes quick from the pleasant woods, and colored wings
Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along
The forest openings.

When the bright sunset fills
The silver woods with light, the green slope throws
Its shadows in the hollows of the hills,
And wide the upland glows.

And, when the eve is born,
In the blue lake the sky, o’er-reaching far,
Is hollowed out and the moon dips her horn,
And twinkles many a star.

Inverted in the tide,
Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows throw,
And the fair trees look over, side by side,
And see themselves below.

Sweet April! – Many a thought
Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed;
Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought,
Life’s golden fruit is shed.
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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)