Cream Tea In the Garden -- Remembering England

 Eight Years Ago in May we were in England

living in a cottage called "Blue Row"

in the Cotswold village of Swerford

It was an old cottage compared to what is in Kansas

for it was built in 1802

But to the Brits, it's rather a "new build"!

It started life out as 4 cottages and now is two

We had this half!

Which had a lovely little garden

And we loved to take tea in the garden if we were home

A linen cloth

(bought as a souvenir and used while we were there)

Flowers

And the tea ware that came with the cottage

We raided the garden for flowers

And bought our scones, our cream and our jam!

 Scones served properly with cream and jam!

Having been used to the price of Clotted Cream here, I was surprised to

find that it was only 90p (or $1.35 there)

And we always had a container in the fridge.    

We didn't have tea in  Blue Row's garden  every afternoon

But if we were home, we did.

Sometimes more simply

A tray brought everything to the garden

the pot of tea, two scones, cream and jam!

Boughten again.    I never did bake a scone in England!

And on rainy days 

We have our tea inside.

If tea was at Blue Row, it was usually a cream tea

of store bought scones (sometimes fruit, sometimes plain), cream and jam

When I was up in the city,  I stopped by World Market

and brought home a jar

It's good.    But not as good as that we bought in England

And it cost way more than $1.35.   

Like $8 plus tax!

Needless to say, we don't have it that often at Linderhof!

But today, with real clotted cream, homemade strawberry jam, freshly baked scones

(because you can't get a good scone in Fort Scott)

and a beautiful day

(the storms of yesterday have left)

we had tea in the garden

I got out the Spode.    It seems a Spode kind of tea.

Blue Italian.    The "cake" plate (upon which the scones are plated) were found

by dear friend (and Andy's Aunt) Jo

They are a treasure!

I brought out a cloth (but alas, not the same one I used in England)

because tea in the garden warrants a nice cloth I think

We're of the cream first, then the jam school

And we take a little milk in our tea

There is nothing better than a real scone (I used an English recipe), with real clotted (or Devonshire) cream, and homemade strawberry jam!

It was a nice respite in the garden this afternoon

And if talk turned to our time in England, it was great to remember that special

Spring when we lived in Blue Row.