T Stands for A Cup of Tea Poem

 

A Cup of Tea

by Anonymous

When the world is all at odds

And the mind is all at sea

Then cease the useless tedium

And brew a cup of tea.

There is magic in its fragrance,

There is solace in its taste;

And then laden moments vanish

Somehow into space.

And the world becomes a lovely thing!

There's beauty as you'll see;

All because you briefly stopped

To brew a cup of tea.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for Pink Breakfast

The last few play days with Teague have involved having breakfast. On this particular day, we decided to try a little place in Grafton called First Bite.

We had tried to stop in several months ago, but the restaurant at 8:30 AM wasn't opened. The owner was just arriving as we left for another breakfast spot.

On this day, the restaurant was open for breakfast and lunch. I had my usual English Breakfast tea and Teague was treated to a fancy apple juice complete with apple slice garnish.

We felt very under dressed in our t-shirts and jeans. The decidedly feminine decor was more suited to a bridal shower brunch.

The menu was quite extensive. Pancakes and waffles came with a selection of toppings from candy, sweetened cereal to traditional maple syrup. I had a delicious cinnamon roll waffle with maple syrup and a side of bacon.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for Convo with Ma

A couple of weeks after Ma's September 2nd birthday, we made the annual trip for a visit. I could just hear her.

"You visit people you don't know, but you don't visit me."

I had to laugh because it was true. In May Teague and I went on a cemetery hop to Watertown to look for a relative of hers, and the last week of August while on our trip to New Hampshire, I talked Teague into visiting the grave of actor, Claude Rains. To make matters worse, I posted the story about Claude Rains on Ma's birthday, September 2.

"Now, Ma, we visit you at least 4 times during the year. We visit sometime between Easter and Mother's Day, around your wedding anniversary on the Fourth of July, around your birthday in September, and shortly after Thanksgiving before the snow flies to bring you a wreath for Christmas.

You are never forgotten. Besides, I never bring flowers to the people I don't know."

I pulled a rose from Ma's bouquet for Dad.

After visiting the cemetery, we stopped at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant for breakfast. I had their version of an Arnold Palmer which is half ice tea and half lemonade. I think they held a tea bag over the glass.

It was still unseasonably warm so no roaring fire in the gas fireplace. (No complaints from me on the hot weather, but Andy had been whining about it. 🎃)

Country kitsch on the walls so you can feel the love.

No matter what time of day you visit, you can get breakfast. I had scrambled eggs, bacon, fried apples, biscuits and gravy, and what I love most about breakfast at Cracker Barrel are the grits. Himself ordered deep fried pickles as an appetizer, but pickles early in the morning are not for me. He thoughtfully ordered beignets. There was also lots of food to take home, too.

No visit is complete without stopping in their gift shop. I was hoping to find some cool Halloween stuff. I mean it was only the middle of September and there was a disappointing table of Halloween stuff.

There wasn't a lot of Fall/Autumn stuff either.

The rest of the store was brimming with Christmas displays. Three months before Christmas! I only took this picture because the hedgehogs reminded me of Tiggy, my friend from Scotland.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for Nasturtiums

 

Nasturtiums are an edible flower. With all the nasturtiums Himself planted, he decided to pick some and add the flowers and leaves to a salad.

It's said the flowers taste a little peppery with a sweet flavor. The leaves are also peppery with a citrusy flavor. I'm not a fan of black pepper so I was glad I didn't pick up on that taste. To me the flowers and leaves were bland. No pepper. No citrus notes.

I forgot to take a picture of my iced tea. Here's a picture with lots of rocks.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for Get Your Kitties Checked

 

Today, begins Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Yeah, you've heard it. Go get your mammogram. The test is not fun. What's the harm in skipping a year or two?

I'm here to tell you to make sure you get your kitties checked. I had a routine mammogram a year ago in November. A few days later, I got a call back. "There was some calcification seen on the image. Please make an appointment so we can do a deeper scan."

On January 2024, I went in to have the deeper scan. After, I was asked to wait so the radiologist could read the image before I left. I barely sat down when the radiologist came into the room. Calcification is common in older women (moi). She said if I were younger, she would have me wait 6 months to do another scan, but the calcification looked very suspicious. She strongly suggested I have a biopsy.

The biopsy was done on January 23 and two days later I got the pathology report: DCIS Ductal Carcinoma in Situ. Carcinoma. Cancer. Whelp, that sux. The good news though, it was caught very early and the second was the "in Situ.": abnormal cells are found only in the place where they first formed. They have not spread, and they rarely spread to other areas of the body. 

A lumpectomy to remove a very small lump, 16 radiation treatments, and taking Tamoxifen for the next 3 years, was a speed bump in my life. On June 27, I was told I was cancer free.

So ladies, I'm the poster child for getting those routine mammograms. I had no clue anything was going on. No pain, no lumps, no bumps. Nothing out of the ordinary. Make sure you have your kitties checked every year. No excuses.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for The Old Post Office Tea Room

 

In the package of goodies Tiggy sent me a couple of months ago, was a postcard of the Old Post Office Tea Room, Chapel of Garioch, Inverurie, Aberdeenshire. 

The cute, blue Brown Betty style teapot and the table set for tea is my ticket to T Day. Tiggy explained the postcard shows a local tea shop. "Are you coming?" I'll be there in a heartbeat, Tiggy!

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for the Kitchen and Butler's Pantry at Castle in the Clouds

Especially for Robin, the kitchen and the butler's pantry at Castle in the Clouds, Lucknow Mansion, Moultonborough, New Hampshire

The table in the kitchen was set for tea for members of the staff. Each folder had a "bio" of the duties of people who might have worked in the home.

The oven and stove

Kitchen sink. The tile floor was made of rubber and pieced together like a mosaic. Apparently, the floor material was another state of the art feature and nearly indestructible. The pattern made me dizzy.

Storage closet for kitchen tools. The items in the house did not belong to the Plants, but were items that were used during that time period. 1914 - 1941.

View from the Butler's Pantry

Here's my T Day ticket. Grab a cup for coffee or tea

Sink in the butler's pantry

State of the art appliances and technologies are seen throughout the house. At first we thought this was a dumb waiter and then realized it was a refrigerator and freezer. Not an icebox! The cooling system for the units was ammonia brine refrigeration system. The house was also equipped with a central vacuuming and intercom system.

The intimate and tastefully decorated dining room.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for What A Nerve!

 

I was happy and excited we would be going to Pop's Clam Shack, the little roadside stand we've all heard about from our blog friend, Erika at BioArtGal. The place is closed Summers, Monday through Wednesday. 

Thursday arrived and I was looking forward to fried clams eaten outside. Teague found something online that said Pop's was closed on Thursday. I contacted Erika through Facebook. She said Pop's was open. I checked the hours on the website and waited until they were open and telephoned.

A man answered the phone.

Hi, I was just calling to find out if Pop's is open today.

Nope, we're closed. It's the first day of school. We'll be open tomorrow.

Thanks, and I ended the call. What the HELL! Closed? What a NERVE! What does the first day of school have to do with the price of clams? And I'm going HOME on FRIDAY and Pop's is in the opposite direction. And what about people who don't have kids, don't have kids in school? Why can't they have a fried clam lunch?

Teague told me to calm down as she had a plan B in the works. She said Pop's was okay, but it was just like every other roadside clam shack.

She drove to Alton's Bay across the street from Pop's to Shibley's At The Pier.

After a short wait, we were shown to a corner table with a view of the lake

and a view of Pop's across the street.

Shibley's was a nice restaurant with lots to choose on the menu. I opted for a broiled haddock wrap, sweet potato fries, and an Arnold Palmer. A little too much aioli in the wrap, but it was delicious.

After lunch we walked around the park in Alton Bay.  I was taking a picture of the wolf by the boat ramp when a fella trying to get his boat out of the water warned me, "They bite."

There was a surfer in a wetsuit (the lake temp was getting chilly) and he was e-Foiling, surfing on the lake. It looked like he was flying across the lake like this:

e-Foiling Lake Winnipesauke

Alton Bay Station was a stop on the Boston and Maine railroad back in the day

Alton Bay boasted the first floating bandstand.

After lunch and walking around, we were continuing our adventure with more exploring of the lakes communities in search of ice cream.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page

T Stands for Lunch On Golden Pond

It was still too early to check into the motel after visiting Claude Rain's grave  so we stopped for lunch at Walter's Basin along 

Little Squam Lake in Holderness, New Hampshire

We had a nice table overlooking the lake, and I had an Arnold Palmer (half lemonade and half iced tea)

Along with a fish sandwich and fries. Besides ketchup there was another sauce to dip sandwich and/or fries.  It was delicious and took us a few minutes to figure out what is was. In Rhode Island, it's popular to have fries with Malt Vinegar. I could taste the vinegar, and then we figured out the other sweeter flavor. After all, where were we? In Maple Syrup country. The combination was fabulous.

Squam Lake/Little Squam Lake became famous because the movie On Golden Pond (1981) starring Katherine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Jane Fonda was filmed there. The boat filling station at the end of the dock is where Katherine Hepburn fills up the boat while her curmudgeon husband waits for the teen to fill the tank. She also returns to this spot to get help when her husband and their young guest don't return after a fishing expedition looking for an elusive trout named Walter.

Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda both won Oscars for their performances. Jane Fonda presented her father with his Oscar. He passed away a few months later.

On the way to the hotel I was very excited to see the restaurant Pop's Clam Shack made famous by our T Day Friend, Erika, from Bio Art Gal. The restaurant was closed on Monday and Tuesday so I was hoping to get there before we left for home.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for Congdon's After Dark

While on our trip in Ogunquit, Teague found information about places to eat. Congdon's After Dark was a food truck park located in Congdon's Donuts and Restaurant's parking lot. The event runs every night from 4- 8 pm June through August. Each night, there are different food trucks and live music.

We went later in the evening and had no trouble with parking or finding a picnic table. We ate there 3 times during the week. It would have been 4 but predicted thunderstorms never happened, but the event had been cancelled. I had an amazing hamburger the first night, chicken tenders which was more like a whole chicken, and pizza by the slice which was actually 1/4 of a large pizza.

One exciting thing, Congdon's had a donut stall set up. We've never been able to get into Congdon's for donuts or breakfast because the lines are out the door and half way down the Post Rd. in Wells, Maine.  

We hit is just right and there wasn't any wait. We each got a "Bavarian Cream", but it was really a Boston Cream as Bavarian Cream is coated with powdered sugar and not chocolate. Whatever it's called it was delicious!

Later in the week, I also got a lemon filled donut for our last breakfast before we headed for home.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

T Stands for Seagulls at Ogunquit House of Pizza

Seagull with French fries

Seagull with a slice of pepperoni pizza

Seagull on a mountain of hamburger

For my beverage, I'm having an iced tea/lemonade mix (known as an Arnold Palmer named after the famous golfer) and Teague is having Moxie, the official soft drink of Maine. Teague's distant relative, John Chamberlin is the Moxie Boy logo.

It was wicked hot and humid outside, and we were grateful for the restaurant's air conditioning while waiting for our subs. Cold food was the order of the day. I was waiting for a roast beef sub, with mustard, lettuce, and tomato. I think Teague had a turkey sub. We were quite surprised when the food was delivered to our table.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.