A Birthday Tea & Garden Tour

What a wonderful "Spring Break" week it has been culminating with a fabulous tea party for Jane and garden tour today. I thought ahead while at Alon's yesterday and picked up a few "goodies" that would make it easy to pull a tea party together. I figured I could not go wrong with my favotites: Apple Normandy, Croissants, honey duck breast and Sweet Grass Dairy green hill cheese from Thomasville GA.

Alon's duck breast & Star Provisions asparagus

I spent the morning catching up on a few gardening duties and shopping for some more annuals to go in the planters. The daffodils fell over after the storm and the warmer weather made them even floppier. To continue enjoying them, I cut the blooms and made a wonderful arrangement for the porch.

I planned a simple menu with the gourmet goodies from Alon's and also made some scones and deviled eggs.

 

 

A perfect batch of Savoy scones with golden raisins

piped and ready for a sprig of dill

 

 

Simply roasted asparagus: Asparagus, olive oil & Maldon salt

Happy Spring: roasted asparagus & duck breast

Green tea caramels

All ready for guest

 

 

Cheese from Thomasville

 

 

 

 

 

Homemade golden raisin Savoy scones

Apple Normandy from Alon's

 

 

 

After enjoying tea, we took a tour of the garden. Spring is in full swing!

Double-file Viburnum, Solomon's Seal and Lily of the Valley

Dutch Iris

 

Peony

 

 

White creeping Phlox

Lady Banks

 

Spontaneous Spring Break, Day TWO

Another beautiful Spring day! the plan for today: Another excursion into the city for Linda. She had the day off and Elizabeth and Jean had some errands to run around town. While waiting for everyone to get ready, I did a little "decorating" with my collection of blown eggs.

 

 

top to bottom: turkey, chicken, bantam, quail, button quail

I was like a bird in spring feathering it's nest, laying all these eggs around the house. Before it got too late, we were off to the city. First stop, the Westside!

We had lunch at Taqueria del Sol. After we finished ordering, the guy at the counter said "You know that's THREE orders of guacamole at your table??". But we do love their guacamole, it is always perfect.

I also had the shrimp corn chowder, fish taco and carnita taco

After our yummy lunch we explored the area on foot. I enjoyed browsing through the shops selling all sorts from furniture to fashions. At the the new ANTHROPOLOGIE, they had a wonderful display fashioned out of wine corks. 

A green train roared by while I was crossing the bridge

I loved the planter this olive tree is growing in

beautiful boxwoods at Abatoir

 

After our walk, it was time for a little dessert from Star Provisions. I was surprised how little was left in the duration of an hour since we were in there last. The chocolate meringues and black and white cookies were no longer, so I went with a cupcake and Linda had the ginger molasses cookie.

iced coffee to wash down the dessert

moist cake filled with homemade strawberry preserves topped with strawberry buttercream and fresh farm strawberry, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I picked up more giant local asparagus at Star Provisions.

Found a nice birthday gift at Anthro and also picked up a couple of nifty looking earth day invites

We continued the rest of our afternoon adventure around the intersection of Lindberg and Piedmont. Lot's to do here, the Pike's nursery and Home Goods is all we had time for because we wanted to stop at Alon's before headed home. I found all the plants I needed for my planters in the front of the house at Pikes and the perfect green wooden planter for my Pahiopedilum orchids at Home Goods.

My Pahiopedilum tabletop garden 2011 edition is complete

At Alon's I replenished my supply of Perucche sugar cubes and picked up a few goodies for Jane's Birthday Tea on Friday. I also could not resist some of the macarons. I am calling it "research".

Caramel, Green Apple and Rose

We all decided the green apple macaron was ho hum but the caramel and rose were both amazing

Gruyere poppyseed savory scones and plain croissants made with yeast , flour, butter, sugar and egg, basically a REAL croissant without ingredients that are hard to pronounce.

Bulldog Pahiopedilums are lasting nicely, welcome home!

Spontaneous Spring Break, Day ONE

All my piano students are off on Spring Break this week, I have no evening rehearsals and Jean also having her Spring break means it is "VACATION" at home and in the city . We had planned a trip to AW pottery and also Pike's to get some "goodies" together for Bev's birthday but the plans unraveled at the last minute. The weather was to be lovely so we went ahead into the city anyway, surely we would find something fun to do.

First thing we did, brunch. We headed into Candler Park where Elizabeth works

"crossed eyed cat"

This mirror is almost full

 

Good coffee.. also I was wondering the likelihood of me making it to Choir practice on time...

sweet potato pancakes

Omelettes and homemade biscuits, delicious!

   

 After brunch and a lovely visit with Elizabeth, Troy, Jean & I explored the neighborhood a little

I loved this place, they had homemade cupcakes and a teapot collection and tons of books to read. Unfortunately, we were totally full already. Making a note to come back another day.....

 

With no real plan of where we were going next, we headed North into the city. I thought it might be fun to hunt for the doubled handle tea strainer I've been dreaming off so we decided to go antique hunting. We tried to stop in at "Paris on Ponce" but they are closed on Wednesdays. We were disappointed but there was a pretty Cherry tree out back and what a beautiful day it was.

We decided to try our luck at a couple of other places and had a lovely time browsing through "Antiques & Beyond"  and another antique shop across the street on Cheshire Bridge Road, the name escapes me...but  needless to say we lost track of time and before you know it, rush hour was moments away! I decided that it was not a good idea to fight the traffic but instead wait out the traffic with more eating and shopping!. Luckily, Carol & Anna were able to fill in for me at choir so I owe them both a big thank you!

Amazingly, we still had not managed to buy anything, which was good thing I guess but we were suddenly inspired and remembered the "Berverly Bremer" silver shop.. watch out trouble ahead, a shop that sells nothing but silver. The staff was a delight at the shop and we had fun handling all the wonderful merchandise while being peppered with all sorts of history and information on the pieces we were looking at. And best of all, they had a plethora of tea strainers to choose from and one exactly like what I was looking for!

 

Looking at flatware and tea sets for over and hour sure made me hungry so it was suppertime! We decided to eat nearby and visit LENOX mall since we were in the neighborhood. On the way, we made a little detour to Pollen, a lovely little place full of the most beautiful flowers and plants you've ever seen tucked into a little bungalow. I always leave the place inspired!

Tree with white flowers outside Pollen

For supper, we headed to Hashiguchi, a real Japanese restaurant conveniently located by Lenox Mall.

Spinach Ohitashi

Ebi(shrimp) tempura

Katsu Don and some griled salmon

With our bellies full and thirst quenched, we headed to the MALL! We got a good "cardio" walk in while browsing all over the mall. It was a most wonderful day and I wondered what was installed for our 2nd day in the city tomorrow.