Higinbotham's Tea Room

We recently enjoyed an afternoon tea at Higinbotham's Tea Room in New Oxford, PA. This elegant and stately mansion is also a bed and breakfast, but warmly welcomed our Rosemary House bus group for a late evening tea. Seated throughout the tea room, in the parlor, the library, and the sunroom, we all nestled in for an evening of culinary delights. A warm cinnamon praline scone was served along with a variety of hot teas. We enjoyed soup and a Waldorf salad, followed by a tiered tray full of warm savories. The dessert plates held tempting morsels as well. It was an enjoyable and relaxing evening with much chatter among friends.

Pam Montgomery

We were honored to welcome Pam Montgomery of Plant Spirit Healing and Partner Earth Education for our 2010 workshop on medicinal herbs. Pam taught an experiential class using the gardens of The Rosemary House as the classroom. We went beyond the chemical constituents of the plant to creating a bond with the plants and thereby reaching the very source of a plants healing abilities.

Pam Montgomery is the author of Plant Spirit Healing: A guide to Working with Plant Consciousness. Her approach to this is very systematic and scientific as well as deeply spiritual.
Pam received training from the Empire State College in Alternative Health Education. She is the originator of Green Terrestrial Herbal Products of Vermont ans was one of the founding members of the Northeast Herbal Association. Active in United Plant Savers and a major organizer of Green Nations Gathering. Our thanks to Pam Montgomery for bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to our shop. Beautiful weather, wonderful knowledge, delicious lunch by Nancy equals a perfect day!

One of the seminar attendees, Tina Sams of The Essential Herbal shares her experience on her blog.

Oh to be Eleven again!

Carefree, exuberant, energetic, happy, full of life, awesome, growing up too fast, sweet, innocent, joyful, sincere, beautiful,delightful, precious, smart, happy-go-lucky, and the list goes on and on.
Angelica, decorating cupcakes to share with her classmates on the occasion of her eleventh birthday. What fun!

Blooming Tea

These two hand rolled and hand tied green tea 'blossoms' were a gift from my sister Marj, treasures she found while traveling in Germany. Long green tea leaves are rolled and tied into this pyramidal shape, and then a blossom slowly emerges when steeped in not-quite boiling water.Notice the leaves starting to unfurl.

After completely steeping, this sweet little blossom opens up to reveal three petite rosebuds in the center. There are many different types of blossoming teas, also referred to as blooming teas or flowering teas. Some include different colored flowers such as globe amaranth that are unveiled after the leaves open. It must require such patience to craft these delicate little blossoms, but what a fun way to enjoy a cup of green tea.

Teacup Thursday

Tucked around the tearoom are a wide variety of teacups. Can you spot them?

This precious little teacup frame holds a delightfully vintage photo from the very early '60s. Alas, the youngest, Susanna, isn't even around yet. The cute curly headed kid on the right is Nancy.
This is one of my favorites featuring a young Cedar at one of his earliest tea parties. His head just barely cleared the table.
And this teacup frame holds a picture of Mom at the Rose Bowl that featured Penn State and another team. Although she much preferred seeing the floats being constructed for the parade, she got in the spirit on game day!
Visit Miss Spenser's Special Teas for additional Teacup Thursday participants.

SereniTea Wednesday

Every Wednesday we offer SereniTea in Sweet Remembrances. Reservations for any size party will be accepted. Groups of 2 or 3 or 5, will receive a beautiful tea tray full of tempting morsels.
On this particular Wednesday, the bottom tier featured Afternoon Tea sandwiches. We served Almond Chicken Salad Triangles, Pineapple & Kiwi Sandwiches, Olive and Garlic Tapenade on whole wheat with Gorgonzola cheese and shredded carrots, and a Roast Beef, Cheddar Cheese, and Tomato spiral. The middle tier featured oven fresh scones. Once you are seated at your table, and your tea is brewing, these scones are put in the oven to bake. The fragrance of freshly baked scones fills the tea room! We always serve a Traditional English Cream Scone, and a flavored scone, Cinnamon Chip for the fall. A touch of fresh fruit accompanies the scones along with mock clotted cream and jelly.The dessert featured a moist Banana Bread that had maraschino cherries, coconut, and pecans, decorated Italian Cream Cupcakes, and Currant Cookies.All complimented with your own personal pot of properly brewed tea, chosen from a selection of over 40 teas. Serenity indeed.

Teacup Thursday

We're joining Miss Spenser's Special Teas for Teacup Thursday today. Here, Tina of The Essential Herbal and Susanna mimic the whirlwind action of this amusement park teacup ride. This funky teacup, acquired during the closeout auction at Williams Grove Amusement Park several years ago, is currently planted in our herb gardens as a reminder of days gone by when we would enjoy the Teacup Ride on a hot summer day. Now, it offers photo opportunities for many that stroll the garden as they reminisce about their own whirlwind summer days at the park. The teacup, shown here during the Fairy Festival, fills up more readily with bubbles than it would with tea. Visit Miss Spenser's blog for links to more delicate teacups!

Making a Wish.... Wishing a Wish...

Tucked in a corner of the garden is the "Make a Wish" tree that was offered during the Fairy Festival.
Guests were invited to write their wish, dream, or desire on a piece of cloth and attach it to the tree. If you didn't want to write down your wish, you were encouraged to hang the cloth as you expressed your wish silently. Many wishes are gently blowing in the breeze, waiting to be fulfilled. Since this was done during our Fairy Festival, a large majority wished to be 'a real fairy' or something such as this one 'I wish I could fly please'. Others expressed the desire 'not be afraid', or a wish for 'peace & love'.'The best day ever', and 'fun with everyone' were also expressed. And my personal favorite, 'I wish I lived in Candyland'. Given the opportunity, what would you wish for?

Teacup Thursday

We are joining Miss Spenser's Special Teas for Teacup Thursday today and sharing a fairy like teacup gift from a sister that recently traveled to Dresden, Germany. She presented me with this lovely petite golden lined rose cup and leaf saucer souvenir from her travels. It is a perfect addition to the fairy collections. Thank you Marj!

Be sure to visit Miss Spenser's Special Teas for links to additional participating blogs!

Ahoy Maties!

Aaarrgh... me maties.... 'tis International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Aye! Cast aside ye woeful worries and sail the high seas with yer mighty buckos whilst we seek tea, herbs, spices and gold whilst singing sea chanties until the four bells chime. Yo! Ho! Ho!

In the Fairy Garden

If you're honest, polite, and neat,
Gentle, patient, kind and sweet,
Fairies will put you on their list,
And some day you'll be fairy kissed.

The excitement is building!

Fairy Rose Fairy will once again grace the gardens of The Rosemary House and Sweet Remembrances this weekend with her stories,
some dancing and singing, and tea parties, of course.
And Posie the Fairy will share her magical activities with those that believe. Here's the complete listing of the upcoming Schedule of Events.

It's Fairy Festival week.... the anticipation is building! See you on September 11th and 12th!

The path to Fairyland is paved

with cheerful, sunny smiles.

You climb right over all the

storms on happy Rainbow Stiles

and when you do reach Fairyland,

no matter how you roam,

you'll find that Fairyland

begins and ends within your home.