Afternoon Tea at the Lavender Tea House

My daughter, Catherine, and I drove to Salem, Oregon where she turned in her application for the Professional Engineering exam in the fall. On the way home we had Afternoon Tea at the Lavender Tea House at 16227 SW 1st Street in historic Old Town Sherwood. The house was built in 1892 as the John Owens Residence. We sat at a table for two at the front window. We each had four tea sandwiches, fresh fruit, three desserts, a large, fluffy sweet cream scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam, and a pot of tea. The food was delicious!

"South Riding"

Yesterday evening I watched the BBC production of "South Riding" that I had taped over the previous three weeks. The lives and loves of a 1930s fictional Yorkshire town starred David Morrissey and Anna Maxwell Martin. One reviewer wrote "The direction didn’t help. Every shot was gloomy, as if the presence of hope could be symbolised by the amount of electricity you could afford. The domestic scenes all looked dingy... The school was a shadowy labyrinth, with bars of light occasionally picking up the dust rising from the textbooks." Be that as it may, I thoroughly enjoyed the production and plan to read the novel soon.

Trip to Leavenworth, WA, May 13 - 14, 2011

On Friday noon, May 13th, my #2 son, Christopher, and I traveled to the Bavarian Village of Leavenworth for the Annual Maifest - May Festival 2011 celebrating Fruhling (Spring) in the traditional Bavarian fashion. Christopher is the pianist for the Portland, Oregon German Choral Group. We had a motel suite that offered a great complimentary breakfast.

On Saturday May 14th Seattle's premier dance group entertained the audience from 1:00 to 2:00 PM with numerous traditional German dances including the Maipole Dance. Village folks and visitors alike were dressed in Trachten and traditional fare. From 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. three Pacific Northwest German Choral Groups from Vancouver, B.C., Spokane, WA, and Portland, OR performed at the downtown Leavenworth Gazebo.

Christopher and I found caches on I-84 east, Highway 97 north, the one solitary cache in Toppenish, several caches in Leavenworth, Highway 97 south and US 90 westbound. We also found four benchmarks. Christopher got home at 11:30PM. I got home at midnight. It was a long trip made more difficult on the way home by the pouring rain.

Afternoon Tea at Pomeroy Living History Farm

My daughter, Catherine, and I drove to The Gathering Place at Pomeroy Living History Farm in Yacolt for Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea. We had Yorkshire Gold Tea with Cucumber Sandwiches with Herb Butter, Egg Sandwiches, and Spring Turkey Sandwiches with Dates and Bacon; Scones with Devonshire Style Cream and two kinds of Jam; and Sour Cream Almond Cake, Fresh Fruit Tart, Spring Cookies and Chocolate Covered Strawberries. It is always a lovely drive along the Lewis River.

Klager Lilac Gardens and Afternoon Tea at The Brits

My daughter, Kimberly, and I enjoyed a lovely morning tour of the historic Klager house and the Lilac Gardens in Woodland, Washington. The Klager family purchased the farm in Woodland in 1877 when Hulda Klager was thirteen-years-old. The house, built in 1889, is located on four acres of the original farm. Hulda’s work with lilacs began in 1905 and continued until her death in 1960. Today the gardens are owned and maintained by the Hulda Klager Lilac Society. The farmhouse has been restored to its Victorian origin.

We were at the Kluger Lilac Gardens on a cold, damp day so there was less perfume than if we had been there during warmer conditions. I did like the fragrance of the "Silver King" and "President Lincoln." "Mount Baker" is evidently fragrant also. I also liked the brilliant yellow blooms of "Kerria Japanese Rose." My daughter, Kimberly, liked the lilac "Miss Kim" for the name as it had no blooms yet.

Afterwards we drove to Longview where we had afternoon tea at The Brits. We had a pot of Earl Grey tea with several sandwiches, savories, marionberry scones and fresh strawberries in Crème fraîche for dessert. Afternoon Tea was served in fine bone china.

Exploring the Sellwood Antique District, May 4th

I explored over ten blocks of antique shops in the Sellwood Antique District from SE Harney Street north to SE Bidwell Street along SE 13th Avenue. Amazingly I did not purchase anything except a delicious, warm cinnamon “morning” roll at Starbucks at 10:30AM and at 1:00PM a ham and cheese sack lunch at Grand Central Bakery. The sun was shining. It was a lovely day.

Tulip Festival at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, Woodburn, Oregon, Sunday, May 1, 2011

My daughter, Kimberly (kimmykat), and I went to the Tulip Festival at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Oregon on Sunday morning, May 1, 2011. After parking my car in a dusty field (I just washed it yesterday!), we walked to the Tulip Display Area & Windmill. We saw several steam tractors. The tulips were quite beautiful! We walked past the fields and fields of tulips to the Office where we got the green Letterbox form. We tried to get into the area that was fenced off for the Wine Tasting Event. We were told that we could not enter so we went into the Gift Shop where we were escorted back and permission was given to enter the Wooden Shoe Garden. We found the first of the Letterboxes, left the WS Garden and went on a long walkabout to locate the remaining four Letterbox locations. It was great fun. We turned our cards into the Gift Shop and was given a choice of prizes. We rode the tram back to the dusty car.