Posted on by Cathy

Afternoon Tea with a difference

Some more photos from the archives plus a little story to go with them.   
Joining in with Elephant’s Child and others for Sunday Selections

Years ago bloggers had loads of fun organising ‘virtual’ events.  
A bit like pandemic events these days – just like in real life except online😊

One of these was to be an Afternoon Tea.
So when I was talking about this to a friend she laughed and said
‘that sounds lovely…fabulous fun!
then followed up with ‘ but wouldn’t an actual tea party be lovelier?
We could have cake and little tiny sandwiches with no crusts
and cups of tea and all that!
And you know what, we could have it outside in the garden 😊

So I let her run with the idea just to see what she’d come up with
First of all she fancied ‘Low Tea’
Served on a low table on the deck
http://www.wikihow.com/Serve-Low-Tea

Low table for Low Tea!

Then it was to set a little table up down near the garden – Champagne Tea she called it.      
No cakes and pastries- just strawberries and cream and drinkies!

Champagne Tea in the garden!

Ready for Strawberries and Cream - and Champagne!

But not everything went to plan.  
It was supposed to be a nice day but somehow the weather didn’t turn out to be that good.  Just as I had everything set up a very fine rain started to come down
Strawberries ready to go – the roses were looking good

Strawberries and whipped cream!
Strawberries and whipped cream!

Then my dear friend (yes the very same one I’ve been talking about recently) walked in the door not feeling too well
No food had been prepared so she’d made a quick change of plan

And had popped into the local bakery – hey presto
Cream Tea  – casual home style

A cream tea (also known as a Devonshire tea, Devon cream tea or Cornish cream tea)is tea taken with a combination of scones, clotted cream, and jam

We ended up on the deck having scones, whipped cream and jam (with butter for me).   
Plus a few chocolate bits I had in the cupboard
Fabulous  Fun!

Scones, Jam and Cream!
Cream Tea with a friend!
Cream Tea with a friend!

Click the small photos to enlarge

25 Replies to “Afternoon Tea with a difference”

  1. That looks such fun!
    I remember when in France a friend had returned from the U.K. with clotted cream…and kindly invited a group over for a clotted cream tea in the garden…and as it was in France, with the dessert wine which was produced in the area.

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    1. It was a fun day Joanne. Even now all these years later I remember going through your cupboards picking out all the linen crockery and glassware to set the scene

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    1. I don’t think we’d met at that time Andrew. Maybe another time
      A blogger mentioned the post hadn’t come through on The Old Reader so I thought it was the same foal feeds.

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  6. I’d love to have afternoon tea with friends.
    We did have Devonshire tea here during the few weeks we were allowed to have visitors
    But that was so long ago now.
    It all looks so pretty

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    1. Fruit cake and cheese – I’d forgotten about high teas and all, and here I am living in a country where all that dried fruit is sourced and they don’t have a fruit cake tradition. Here it’s icky sticky sweetness, or dry as dust biscuits, and now I’m salivating thinking about a nice moist fruit cake and a slice of mature cheddar.
      (To be fair their cheeses are fabulous – just discovered Mytilini Oil cheese and that would be fab with fruit cake.) (F)

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    2. I’ve never heard of Yorkshire High Tea….I’ll have to investigate what that’s all about. Fruit cake and cheese sounds good, cheese we have but no cake so I’ll have to put that right sometime.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Looking at the photos brought it all back Germaine. Fun to set up and even though the tea party we ended up wasn’t the one we thought we were going to have it turned out to be just as nice

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  9. That looks absolutely charming, and makes me wonder when and why we stopped bringing out the best china/crystal etc for a ‘tea’. These days its mugs (or cardboard takeaways) of coffee and quick eats from industrial packaging! I must take a leaf from your book. (F)

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    1. It was a fun day F….nice to look back on. And yes you’re right, we should use all the ‘best China’ on a regular basis. The way things are at the moment keeping things for high days and holidays seems silly. Use it or lose it.

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  11. Last night we shared a takeout dinner outside with friends. She had set the six foot long table with cloth, crystal, china and silver. It was wonderful. It seems your climate is now just warm enough for that and ours is in the last gasp of the weather making it possible.

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    1. What a lovely special way to enjoy an easy meal. It doesn’t cost much to have fun does it😊
      Yes our weather is on the turn…well it was. Hot and sunny again until today and then it changed again. Winter has done a u-turn and come back. Rain and cold enough to put the heater on this evening. Spring can be very changeable here in Melbourne….also the bureau has predicted La Niña so it could be a wet summer for us.

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