Tea Party

Dear Constant Reader, When spring arrives, so does my desire to host a tea party. Alas, when the day arrived, it was chilly and rainy. Such is spring in New England. Nevertheless, the tea and companionship were warm. As usually I had a dozen guests and made three kinds each of sandwiches, scones, and sweets, plus tea. TeaSince I have four tea pots, there were four teas. A black tea my sister brought back from Hong Kong, The Earl in Grey, blooming green, and an herbal spice blend from my sister-not-in-law. I have a large collection of tea cups, many of which were gifts from friends, but not enough for a unique cup for everyone, so I added in from our heirloom china sets. The identical cups had Halloween-themed wine charms on the handles, so the guests could easily identify their tea. SandwichesAs always, I made cucumber sandwiches. Ava was good enough to give me some dill from her garden to sprinkle on the cucumber slices. Then tomato sandwiches with chives from my garden. I wanted to…