Thursday 26 February 2015

Exploring Tea Part 1

For all my tea loving friends across the world I have a treat in store. I will be doing a series of posts over the coming weeks/months. Two things recently got me thinking about posting on the subject of tea again.


The first was the fact that my son recently visited some tea plantations while on holiday in Bangladesh.
He brought back bags of tea direct from the plantations.






Secondly I came across  Newby Teas when looking for a good quality Peppermint tea
It certainly was good and tastes more like the fresh tea I make at home during the Summer when my own Mint plants are growing
I am looking forward to trying more of their many teas over time.
For now I will leave you with a taster of interesting facts from Newby website


Victoria and Albert Museum (in London) Tea Gown
The tradition of taking tea in the “afternoon” conjures up images of sophisticated, beautifully-dressed ladies socialising over cups of steaming Assam tea. Tea gowns were invented for such events. Above we have a picture showing a tea gown by the celebrated designer Charles Worth, with luxurious flowing fabrics of pink satin, silk and lace. The tea gown could be worn without a corset and this allowed women to feel relaxed and liberated whilst taking tea with their friends.
The custom for fashionable ladies to take tea in the afternoon existed from the end of the 17th century- Madame de Sévigné (1626-1696) often referred to “five o’clock tea” in her letters. The tradition for Afternoon Tea gained popularity in the Victorian era and such social occasions called for larger and more impressive sets of silver and ceramic tea services.
Hope you enjoyed - do come back there is much more to come.



Sunday 15 February 2015

Duxford Aircraft Museum Part 2


Land Warfare - see how ground combat has changed over the 20th century


This part of the museum shows what it was like to be involved in land warfare, though I am sure it was a lot more messy than we see here
















Field Marshall Montgomery's trailer


Had to look through the windows as not open to the public






Well that's it for now
The boats, submarines and maritime aircraft, operations rooms, memorials etc., we did not do on this visit. The airfield is such a large site and visiting museums interspersed with walking to restaurant and tearooms, by the end of the day I felt I could not take another step. Was a great day for 7 year old Oliver. I think he liked the aircraft best.

Monday 2 February 2015

Duxford Aircraft Museum Part 1

Can't believe it was 2013 when we took Grandson Oliver to our local Aircraft Museum


Here we see a Spitfire used in The Battle of Britain 

and here a Tiger Moth
One can take a flight around the airfield in these planes


and some passenger planes
(not for flying, only viewing)



Some USA readers might recognise this aircraft



We have now entered the American Air Museum
The red symbols on the side show how many planes were shot down by this aircraft





I think this is a Stealth Bomber





Young Oliver who was only 7 then - standing under some aircraft wings







We are now in the Museum of The Battle of Britain





where we also see Concorde


and take a look inside


at the controls
the passenger area (not shown here) is very cramped and with low ceilings


The size of these wings always amaze me when standing underneath them



Looking up inside a wing




and now in to the hangar of light flying aircraft



Lots to do for children here but to appreciate such one needs a day just for that



Flight simulators 


and outside play
There is far more than one can see in a day as Duxford covers such a large area but for
part 2 we will visit the
Land Warfare Museum