We had some extra heavy cream left over, so I decided to try a new scone recipe - or rather an old scone recipe; my aunt's cream scone recipe, in fact. No butter, just flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and heavy cream, and you get tall and fluffy scones.

Also my roommate has an awesome wintery tea set. (The design is actual gray flowers, not snowflakes, but hey! Same diff.)

My Breaking Cat News mug arrived! ( Adorable mug picture below! )

The one problem with an all-white mug, I have discovered, is that tea stains the sides really swiftly and obviously, which I do not like. So in the future I will take care to purchase mugs with colored insides. But this fly in the ointment has not spoiled my love for my adorable cat mug; I have decided that it is to be my mug for my evening tea (which is not actually tea, but a tisane, Stash's Christmas in Paris tea). I like to have specific times and rituals for things.

bunn asked: Do you have a favourite tea?

I do! Well, actually I have two. In the mornings, I like to drink Lady Grey tea: aromatic, citrusy, and without the harsh throat-scratching qualities of Earl Grey. Admittedly, it also doesn't have that delicious billow of bergamot-scented steam that Earl Grey has right after you pour the water on it, but one can't have everything.

But I don't drink caffeinated tea at night, so if I want tea in the evenings I drink Stash's Christmas in Paris tea, which is the perfect tea and glorious and... I'm actually kind of hard-pressed to describe it. In some ways it isn't what I would think of when I say Christmas tea: there's no ginger or cinnamon, and while there is a little mint, it's very understated, just barely a hint. (Usually I find mint teas much too minty.) There are hints also of chocolate and lavender, but it's so subtly blended that no particular flavor predominates, and it's just very nice.

I have been poking around that Adagio Teas site, considering the fandom blends. This Felix Felicis blend looks pretty delicious, for instance. But we'll see if I ever get around to it.

(There's still plenty of room for more questions over at the December Meme post!)

Via seascribe: Oh, I want to know about your favourite kind of tea. I see all your lovely tea pots and tea parties, and just talk to me about tea! What kind you like, how you take it, what tea goes best with what biscuits.

TEA. TEA TEA TEA. I like this question a lot and may get somewhat long-winded!

My favorite kind of tea is Twinings Lady Grey tea, the kinder, gentler cousin of Earl Grey. They share a similar gentle citrus scent, but Lady Grey doesn't have the harsh aftertaste that Earl Grey does. I drink it black: no milk, no sugar, no lemon.

This is the kind of tea that I drink most days, in the morning if I get up early enough. "Early enough" means at least an hour before I have to be anywhere, partly because it takes a long time for it to cool down enough for me to drink it. (My friend Emma can drink tea more or less directly after steeping. This may be a sign that she is secretly a cyborg.) But also it makes the day feel off-kilter if I'm rushed over my tea: as if I don't have enough time to get everything that needs doing, done.

So if I don't have time in the morning, I'll put my tea off until afternoon or evening.

The one problem with Lady Grey (indeed, with the entire Grey family of teas) is that its caffeinated, which means that if I drink it after six o'clockish I will be bouncing off the ceiling when I ought to go to bed. (I know that there are decaffeinated versions, but that is cheating.)

Therefore one of my ongoing quests is to find the perfect non-caffeinated tea. I like Stash's ginger-peach tea (although I'm not fond of either ginger or peach tea on their own) and their Christmas in Paris blend, and I also adore the honeybush caramel tea my lovely penpal poeticknowledge sent me from Revolution Tea.

The one problem is that, except for the honeybush caramel tea, none of these go very well with chocolate, and everything I like to dunk in tea has chocolate. I especially love McVitie's digestive biscuits with dark chocolate coating, because they remind me of England and they're just the right size - three bites per biscuit.

Oh, or biscotti! I made tons of biscotti last week, because I was done with papers, out of McVities, and had nothing to do but drink tea and read Sutcliff for three days. I make biscotti with almonds and chocolate chips and they are delicious.

My wonderful penpal poeticknowledge sent me an autumn tea set as an early Christmas present. Clearly, I needed to arrange an autumn tea post haste! (I realize the first few weeks of December are still technically autumn, but nothing will ever make them feel autumnal to me)

So I invited over my friend Chelsea.



As you can see, there are two teapots. There were but two of us, so I used the small pot for tea and the big pot for a centerpiece.

( The extra teapot )

We also had a couple of extra teacups, which I put out because they made the table look more balanced. "I hope you brought your imaginary friend," I told Chelsea.

"Of course," she said. "That's Sir Bob, and that's Orville Redenbacher."

( Orville Redenbacher's teacup )

It is a misty, misty morn! I meant to get up and be productive, and indeed I did eventually, but it took a while because I was up until two last night on account of having two pots of tea in the evening.

Not all to myself, mind. My parents brought me a box of Belgian chocolates (did I mention they went to Belgium? They went to Belgium. "You always go the best places when I'm in school," I said wistfully.

"Do you even know anything about Belgium?" asked my dad.

"They have chocolate!"

"Anything else?"

"...more chocolate?")

Anyway, having acquired this box of Belgian chocolates, it was clearly imperative to have my friends over for a Belgian chocolate tea party. Sadly the photos didn't come out very nicely - let's face it, the interior of a chocolate box is only visually interesting when you're trying to decide which one to eat - but it was a lovely party. We discussed whether or not ghosts count as undead. Rick said no, I said yes, provided they're the kind of ghost that can talk to you and still has feelings and such, rather than just a ghost that mechanically repeats the same movements as if they're in a movie.

And, as all loyal Scooby Doo fans know, if you find the second type of ghost, you should probably start looking around for the projector anyway.

You know what would be great for a non-Scooby supernatural investigation show? If the show split half and half between supernatural and non-supernatural causes. It would add an extra layer of interest to the investigation to have to put serious work into deciding if this one was really a ghost, or just a vengeful relative or disaffected teenager with a projector.

***

Also also! fic_corner stories are live!!!!! And I have TWO, OMG, both for Crown Duel, but filling different prompts! I haven't read them yet, because I am reading the dullest book ever for my nineteenth-century US history class - I shouldn't complain too much, this is the first bad book we've read - so I'm going to let myself read the stories when I hit milestones in the book.

I will link those once I've read them. (Also, any other recs I have for the exchange. WANT TO READ EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW.) For now, here are the stories I wrote:

Ivy and Thorns, Ella Enchanted, G. “The language of flowers,” said Manners Mistress, looking over the finishing school garden with a dreamy smile that usually meant she was thinking of the king and queen. “Ah! Is there a language in the world sweeter, more delicate, more suitable for gentle maidens than that of our petaled sisters of the garden?”

At finishing school, Ella and Areida learn about the language of flowers. Hattie, as usual, gets in the way.

I enjoyed writing all of this - Areida's sweetness, Ella's defiance, musings about how Ella's curse works - but I think my very favorite bit was writing Manners Mistress. My friend Emma betaed it for me.

The Persistence of Memory, Code Name Verity, G. “Did you ever read A Little Princess?” Julie asked. “I loved to pretend to be Sara Crewe." Maddie remembers playing pretend with Julie.

Betaed by our most excellent rymenhild, who pinpointed brilliantly why it wasn't quite gelling. I think it does now!

My favorite season is upon us! More or less: it’s only early September, it may get hot again. But it feels like autumn to me: the nights chill, the days creeping into warmth, and the trees beginning to turn.

Here are a few of my favorite things:

1. Hot apple cider! I love hot apple cider.

2. Apple picking. I’ve never actually gone apple-picking, but I am generally fond of picking edible things.

3. Pumpkin bread!

4. In keeping with the theme of “edible delights of autumn,” of course I must have an autumn tea. Or rather an autumn cider, as we would have hot apple cider instead of tea. And pumpkin bread!

5. I’ve been contemplating the tea decor: tiny pumpkins, of course. Also maybe autumn leaves? I feel like bringing fallen leaves into the house might look more untidy than anything else…

6. Plus, we could read autumn-themed poems! I would bring Gerard Manley Hopkin’s Spring and Fall: To a Young Child. Or maybe something by Dickinson.

7. I also tend to rewatch Phoebe in Wonderland in the autumn.

8. The autumn colors. I love the autumn has a palate, red and gold and brown - as does winter; white and black and hints of gold. Summer and spring are all colors, which is lovely but less striking.

9. Falling leaves.

10. HALLOWEEN.

***

Spring and Fall: To a Young Child
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

For my birthday, I acquired a copy of the miniseries about the pre-Raphaelites, Desperate Romantics, and at once came to three conclusions.

1. I must have my friends come over to watch this!

2. Clearly, these viewings must be accompanied by tea parties!

3. And said tea parties should be accompanied by pre-Raphaelite appreciation activities!

There are three disks, so I’m thinking three teas. For the first, clearly we will flip through a book of pre-Raphaelite paintings and admire them. I was stumped on the second, but Emma suggested a dramatic reading of Christina Rosetti’s “Goblin Market,” which is perfect.

But we don’t know what to do for the third.

Me: Is it bad that most of our party plans have an educational component?
Emma: Have you met us?

We have also been trying to plan a speakeasy party. We have all sorts of good ideas - secret password to get in! bottles of gin in the bathtub surrounded by ice! a cheat sheet full of twenties slang for everyone to employ! My life will not be complete until I call at least three people “the cat’s pajamas.”

But we keep getting bogged down on the recommended reading list. We are both agreed on The Great Gatsby - we may even agree on Tender Is the Night - but Emma thinks we have to include Hemingway, and I can’t stand Hemingway, and so.

Meanwhile, Caitlin and Rick swiveled their heads back and forth as they followed this argument. “You realize that you’re arguing about a reading list for a drunken bacchanalia?” said Rick.

“Drunk is the best way to read Hemingway!” Emma rejoined.

THOUGHT. We could have drunken readings of Hemingway short stories at the party! Hemingway drinking games! Take a shot every time Hemingway says something egregiously sexist!

Anyway, all this thinking has led me to my brilliant idea: POETRY TEAS.

So far, my best idea is for the William Blake tea. Apparently, he used to have tea with St. Peter occasionally; his wife would greet friends at the door with “I’m afraid he’s having tea with St. Peter right now,” and they would be all “Oh, all right, I’ll come back later.”

So clearly we would read William Blake poems - I call dibs on “The Tyger” - and leave a chair open for St. Peter.

Emily Dickinson tea! Everyone dresses in white and brings flowers - or leaves - or some other thing from nature - and of course, the invitations must have lots of dashes -

Haiku party. Rather than read haiku, we shall place a single flowering branch in a vase, and write poems about it.

These ideas seem much more doable than my excellent but nonetheless a trifle ambitious ideas for themed teas. (I still mean to have an Alice in Wonderland tea someday, though. Think of the tarts!) So watch this space! Things may be getting quite poetical.

A thunderstorm at teatime! It cleared the air and cooled the world enough that I could in fact have tea, which was lovely. (I was organizing my tags last night, and you guys, I had not realized how much I post about tea. Which reminds me, assuming that no one falls deathly ill over night, tomorrow I am having an Oreo tea with Emma and Rick. Did you guys know there are watermelon Oreos? I wouldn't have believed it either, but I have photographic proof!

( Watermelon Oreos ahoy! )

However, they will not be gracing tomorrow's tea. We got a bag yesterday, and they taste sort of like Jolly Ranchers or watermelon bubblegum, which makes them oddly refreshing...but mostly odd. We shall be having peanut butter Oreos instead.)

But back to my thunderstorm tea! Usually I read something with my tea, and I considered reading more Les Miserables. I have achieved page nine hundred! The end is in sight! Okay, three hundred pages away; but still, on the horizon.

Marius has dropped the creepy stalker baton, Eponine has picked it up, Marius finally went to see his grandfather, who offered him money, which Marius refused even though it would have allowed him to be happy with Cosette because Marius is just special like that -

- and now he is marching off to the barricades. Everyone is going to die there, and as such I find myself loathe to go on reading.

So instead I read Alexandre Dumas fils novel Camille (which is also called The Lady of the Camellias, which has the advantage of actually making sense), which at a mere two hundred pages seemed breathlessly svelte. Also, compared to Les Mis, rather slight: it tells the tragic tale of a young man who falls in love with a courtesan, believes himself betrayed by her, and realizes only too late how truly she loved him.

Naturally it was rather schlocky. But I was prepared for it to be failtastic (it's a French guy! Writing about women! Women who have sex! How many ways could this go wrong?), so schlocky was almost a relief.

It's had a ton of theatrical adaptations (including one with young Colin Firth), and I can see why. The outlines of the story overflow with feeling, and I suspect with good actors there's not a dry eye in the house by the end.

But the writing (or rather the translation): well, it's quite pacey, and I had a good time reading it - but that's just it; for a tragedy, I shouldn't be able to say "It's a fun book!", at least not without adding caveats of the "but in a soul-crushing way" variety. So it's a good read, but for me, at least, Dumas didn't quite accomplish what he meant to.

Emma came to the Eyrie for tea today! We've been debating whether I ought to call my apartment the Dovecote or the Eyrie - it being on the second floor, the name has to be bird related - but I've decided on Eyrie because, well, osprey.

Besides, Dovecote sounds rather more like a cottage, don't you think?

( The tea party )

( Orange blossoms )

It's been a week of tea parties: I had one of my cohort come over for Wednesday tea, and tomorrow another girl is coming for pre-opera tea. I ought to make scones for that...the opera is Xerxes, does anyone have any ideas for appropriately themed pastries?