A Fond Farewell

I put in my last day of work at the tea room Saturday. I was rather loathe to leave my friends home at 11:15 to go to work, but in the end I was happy to be there, as always. The last year and a half has been an incredible experience, so many new things happening. One of the new things was my job at the tea room which has been the most wonderful first job I could have asked for. I can't begin to tell you just how nervous I was that first day, and now they're my second family and I won't hardly see them at all. But I'll be back, if not to work then to sit and enjoy and invigorating cup of tea and catchup with my tea room family.

For the record my boss is one of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet. For my last day of work she fixed up one of our Bethany's teas and the three of us working Saturday sat down to tea towards the end of the day as a farewell party. I was rather tempted to cry being slightly overwhelmed by the kindness that my tea room co-workers and boss have shown me, but I didn't. My boss cried for me which made me feel really bad for leaving but at the same time made me feel so loved and cared about. There are comparatively few jobs around where your boss tells you your last day that she will be praying for you and it has been such a blessing to work for and with her.

A Spot of Tea

It all began at work today. The work day had a slow start so I was dutifully scrubbing down the shelves that hold out numerous kinds of specialty teas. And then I got to the fortuitous third shelf with the strawberry tea and began to think along these lines. I wonder how their strawberry tea is, strawberry tea sounds quite nice, I have strawberry tea at home. . . and before I knew it I was planning a sit down with a pot of Wedgewood Strawberry tea and some left over scones from the tea room. At first I was just going to sit down with a cup of tea and scone with a little bit of the leftover lemon curd and sweet cream that I knew was in the fridge, but the longer I washed shelves and consequently thought about my sit down with my cuppa I thought it would be a nice break for more than just myself.

I got off work early due to our less than desirable number and clientel to the tea room and promptly upon stepping into the kitchen I heated the oven and stuck the scones in to warm. Then the tea kettle was filled and ready to start boiling and my fine china, (pictured above) compliments of Tea With Grace and my aunts, was being lifted from its shelf and placed on the table under the window. Soon the water had come to a boil and was poured over the tea and the scones had finished heating. As if on que Mama emerged from her room having just finished reading with on of the kids.

The twenty or so minutes that ensued were wonderful. Hot tea with cream and sugar and scones topped with Trader Joe's lemon curd and the left over whipped cream were the perfect accoutrement to a cloudy, almost autumn afternoon. There's nothing quite like sitting down with people you love to share an afternoon tea.

bits and pieces of thought

Life's been blessedly busy this summer. Not to the point of overwhelming but busy enough that I haven't had time to think about the impending start to school and begin to panic, I'm actually ready to have some learning be a part of my life again.

I took piano lessons through August this is my third week of no lessons and with that has come very little practice. I shouldn't slack off, it's going to be a bad thing come my first lesson at the University. I'm starting to enjoy the songs I've worked on over the summer. Gershwin's Prelude is incredible and while I play it very imperfectly I can hear in my head just what it's supposed to sound like and that gives me hope and makes me smile because I think the man had a sense of humor, the piece is great, but by no means classical, very contemporary and very discordant, and I like it!

This is my last week of life as I have known if for the last twelve weeks. Saturday is my last day at the tea room making this my last week, I am a little bit depressed about that at the moment. I have so much time invested there that it feels like a part of me I can't imagine not working there, but I suppose I won't have to imagine after Saturday, it will just be reality. I guess I will just have to frequent it as a client, that will be fun.

I start my new job at the library on Monday, and New student week starts and then school will start. I can't say that I'm excited about school, but I'm definitely ready for the structure and I'm ready to learn something new. Really the only thing that I'm not looking forward to is the work I could be even more specific, I'm not looking forward to writing. If college were all lectures and problem solving tests that didn't involve coherent essays and written responses, I wouldn't mind it a bit, unfortunately you have to write, and I'm not so fond of that, to be honest it just scares me.

I've been filling these last few days of summer break with baking and creating. I was inspired to make a quilt two weeks ago and it's been pieced since Sunday, it's just waiting for the backing to be sewn on and for me to quilt it. When it's all done I will post a picture. I have wanted to make Pan Au Chocolate, a croissant filled with chocolate and in my case chopped nuts. Mama was reading aloud "The King in the Window" and it talked about the children being encouraged to eat these Pan Au Chocolate for breakfast so I decided I'd have to find a recipe, this evening I actually got around to making them. It was great because I also wanted to make real buttery flaky croissants so it was a two for one sort of deal, right now they are sitting in the fridge all rolled up, waiting for the morning when I will bake them for breakfast as a special treat for an ordinary Wednesday.

We had visitors Sunday, three of Mama's friends came up from Ca and stopped in to stay the night before heading back on Monday. It was such a treat to be able to visit them, two of the ladies I hadn't seen in almost two years and it was so good to hear about their kids and catch up on their lives.

I have a visitor right now his name is poison oak, he has visited all summer and there have only been a couple of weeks in the last two months that he hasn't been visiting me. The good thing is that I haven't completely swelled up from it, he just comes in little patches mostly on my arms but occasionally on my legs too. This is the price one must choose to pay if she wishes to live in the country.

So those are the bits and pieces of thoughts tumbling about in my head, I'm off to bed, I can't wait to bake my Pan Au Chocolate in the morning. I hope it's good.