HERE'S AN EXTRA TO FEAST UPON

No, I have not been away, though, I have been silent for a little while.  There have been a few interesting things happen which, have kept me otherwise occupied.  I am therefore, storing up quite a number of possible future write-ups, colloquially-speaking. 

I did go visit the tea shop again, (see here: http://myword1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/of-bone-chinatea-and-cakes-and.html ) that serves goodies on and in old bone china, mostly mismatches, nevertheless, they are rather delightful pieces of crockery a-a-n-d make for good talking points.  The weather being really lovely, I sat  at one of the wooden tables outside, revelling in a rare al fresco opportunity.

This plate was adorned with my choice of a luscious more-ish piece of  home made Lemon Drizzle cake and served with a proper cake fork. There were obviously a few available, it was a quiet time;  if the tea shop is busy, you might get a short and dainty fine pronged fork, also nice to work into the cake with which to obtain a morsel to munch.

Here's an extra to feast upon ...the whole slice on the plate, both plate and slice of cake glistening in the sun.

Enjoy!

OF BONE CHINA,TEA AND CAKES AND TRAVELLERS.

It's a glorious day here; I have been out, mainly to get some provisions, however, I did give myself permission to go to a nice little café  that is decorated in candy colours and has shelves full of beautiful old bone china. All the washing up is done by hand, not in a dishwasher, by this means, the customers are all treated to their various coffees or teas in lovely old bone chinaware, too.  If you want a mug of coffee, I am sure that would be something provided in keeping with the ambience.  I sat in the bay of a window  inside.  all the outside tables, about four of them, were taken.  I benefitted from the warmth of the sun through the windows.

It was just too tempting to choose a home-made cup cake, but, I did not.  It was also tempting to think about munching a slice of the home-made banana cake, but, I did not.  Instead I chose home-made carrot and orange soup with seeded bread.  The soup arrived in an early 20th century bone china soup bowl, which sat on a rectangular plate, which, as you will have guessed by now, was also old bone china and had the remains a gold lined edge.  The bread rested on it.  How many storage cupboards had the crockery lived in; what kind of tea tables had it graced, it did look loved and used; what kind of food had been  made and presented to the family or guests using the china?  So many questions to be asked, the answers to which, can only be guessed at.

Similar to one of the many the styles of early 20th century china in use in the café 

(courtesy of ebay)

The arrival of my blueberry scone and home-made raspberry jam in a large heavy cut glass condiment dish, broke into my reveries of the various possible social histories of the crockery. The jam spoon handle sticking out of the hole for it in the lid, had a medallion of decorated porcelain finishing it off with a flourish.  Every little detail was thought about.  My pot of tea arrived covered with a hand-knitted tea cosy, which had a little funnel (knitted) on top; I guess I could have accessed the pot lid via it, if I had wanted too.

On the way home, I gave a lift to a young couple laden with full backpacks, who were hitch-hiking.  I dropped them off on a main road South, where they were very likely to get another lift on route to their destination.