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.

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.

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