The Emilie Loring Collection

Updated Sunday night:

One last tea tonight, this one from the sweltering Northwest.

Don’t forget your book requests!

In the past few months, I have received two collections of Emilie Loring books to distribute among my readers. There may be contests to award books in the future, but if you participate in this year’s tea, you may request a book now. Don’t be afraid to ask; I’d like to see these “Emilies” get to happy homes.

Day One

Mary’s Boston Tea

How appropriate that our first tea comes to us from Boston where Mary declares it a “beautiful day for a tea party.”

Emilie Loring would appreciate each element on Mary’s table. Those are blueberry ginger muffins on the platter, and the china and silver belonged to Mary’s grandmothers and great-great grandmother. Near the cheery daylily from Mary’s garden are several pieces of blue, Rackliffe pottery from Blue Hill, Maine–another Emilie Loring connection. Such a pretty setting for an afternoon tea!

Canadian Connection

Denise’s tea comes by way of Victoria, British Columbia: “Got your blog post and decided to take a break with one of my favorite tea cups and tea (both from Victoria, Canada) and a favorite Emilie book! Cheers!”

Emilie Loring visited Victoria in her forties, so we have yet another Emilie connection. More immediately, Denise’s floral table linen and tea cup whisk us away to a summer garden where Nancy Caswell has her hands full with the imperturbable Geoffrey Hilliard.

Roses and Rackliffe

My husband, Pat, is solo at our Colorado home today. He devised such a nice tea, I’ll have to ask for a repeat when we can enjoy it together!

He writes, “It’s a shame that no one else will be here to enjoy tea with me today, but I’m proud of the offering I have prepared for myself!”

Pat combined garden roses with his mother’s rose teacup and garden placemat. The framed artwork is my invitation to tea at Arcady in Blue Hill, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“The tea of the day is ‘Tension Tamer’ by Celestial Seasonings, a caffeine-free herbal blend with eleuthero, an Asian herb. The tasty bits consist of fresh strawberries, woven whole-wheat crackers topped with tomato and parmesan wedges, and to top it all off, dark chocolate petit beurre biscuits. I drink to our health!”

Are you beginning to recognize Rackliffe pottery? (See also Mary’s tea, above.) Pat’s blue plate and vase are both Rackliffe, becoming more valuable by the moment, because the Rackliffe studio, the field that is its clay source, and all of its inventory are currently up for sale. If you have pottery-making ambitions, make a beeline for Blue Hill!

Abbie in Idaho

The whole point of tea is enjoyment, whatever the day brings, as Abbie shares.

“Tea was pretty simple today because of some unexpected events, but my peonies are still blooming and I am in the middle of Uncharted Seas (I started reading Emilie’s books in order using the Bookshelf for my guide), so I am very happy.   Thank you for inviting me!”

Thank you for coming, Abbie!

Lynn’s Afternoon Pause

Lynn is one of the busiest people I know, but she still finds time for a cup of tea… and then she’s off again!

Patti’s Re-start

There are chapters in our lives that absorb us completely for awhile. My Emilie Loring tea did just what I hoped: It turned the page on nine months of 24/7 caregiving and set my imagination racing ahead to what comes next.

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My mother stitched the hardanger tablecloth that I used today. It’s so beautiful, so intricate, a reminder that sometimes the things we work on the longest are the ones we appreciate the most later on. Think of the hours that are in that cloth, and I can spread it out in a moment to enjoy.

My grandmother’s “Blue Castle” dishes by Taylor, Smith & Taylor (1930s) are nicely sized for tea. Petite bowl, plate, and cup… Alas, I don’t own tea forks or spoons, which would be similarly petite. These worked just fine. 🙂 The unmatched porcelain teapot is Japanese, picked up during my girl-on-her-own days in Los Angeles. I love that pot; it always seems… gentle somehow.

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Since I’d just read Give Me One Summer, I chose As Long As I Live for my teatime companion. There’s so much humor in it, and Joan, like me, has a burning ambition. Hers is financial independence through her career as an artist; mine is to get Emilie Loring’s biography into your hands.

My tea stand held two of my grandmother’s sandwiches (peanut butter/dill pickle and walnut/dill pickle), one that was “a la Emilie” (cream cheese, Major Grey’s chutney and curry powder, topped with cucumber and tomato), and one that was “a la Patti” (Brie topped with fig jam). Guess which I liked best.

What’s tea without a couple of sweets to go with the savories? Mine were fresh strawberries with whipped cream and an array of petit fours from the local bakery. Those disappeared in a hurry!

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My tea was a gift, “Fruits D’Alsace” by Harney & Sons. I mention it, because it may be my favorite of the teas I’ve ever had–or maybe today was just a very good day for it. Rain pelted down outside, then the sun came out, and I had hours to myself to relax and enjoy. I drank it straight, and I drank it with cream, and both were delicious.

The blueberry-topped jar that I used for spiced nuts is not from Rackliffe Pottery, but from an older pottery in Blue Hill. Rowantrees Pottery opened in the early 1930s, the project of an eccentric, adventurous woman, Adelaide Pearson. Emilie Loring’s grandchildren took classes there, and it continued all the way into the early 2000s before closing for good. Rackliffe’s potters had worked at Rowantrees and adapted the popular blueberry-top design to their wares. Now that Rackliffe is closing, too, I wonder who will make the next blueberry-topped pots in Blue Hill.

Day Two

Emilie Loring’s Granddaughter Linda

Linda and husband Bob are avid birders. No wonder, then, that their tea has a bird theme.

Linda and I have a tea history together that goes back years. If you haven’t read our funny story, “A Mouse in my Tea,” take a little detour to do that now.

Peggy in Illinois

“Tea” doesn’t have to be tea. Sometimes, it’s hot chocolate instead.

“I had just a few minutes between my housekeeping and a major storm to enjoy a rich chocolate drink and mini muffins…as I venture into Uncharted Seas.”

A Whole Family of Emilie Loring Fans

This may be the largest family of Emilie Loring readers that I’ve met, aside from the Loring family itself. They might do well to have two sets of books on hand!

Elizabeth writes: “My Mother, her two sisters, my Mother-in-law, and my two sisters and myself enjoyed our tea party on a rainy day here in Hinton, Oklahoma. Even though a few of us were on the phone while the others partook, because of distance, we still enjoyed our time together. We all grew up reading and loving Emilie’s books and each have our favorites. 

“Our Emilie Loring tea party today-

“4 kinds of finger sandwiches- 
Ham with orange marmalade, ham with honey mustard, egg salad, and cheddar with green onions and parsley
White chocolate dipped strawberries and blueberries
Marble Tea Cake

“Served on my mother’s Noritake china that bears her name- Sweet Leilani

“Thank you so much for all the history, I enjoy following your page!”

I would love to hear how this family has shared Emilie Loring across generations, wouldn’t you?

Tea in the Sweltering Northwest

Emilie Loring quoted, “The hotter the day, the hotter the tea,” but with temperatures in the triple digits, Debbie took a different tack:

“It’s 99 degrees this evening, which is why I waited longer to take the photo! My teacup has ice tea in it. The cake is my leftover 50th birthday cake, and the candy is aplets & cotlets from Liberty Orchards in WA.

The teacup/saucer and plate are Burleigh. I bought them in England.

I chose Behind the Clouds for my photo because it is set in Alaska. And Alaska sounds nice and cool right now!”

Coast to Coast Teas

Without trying to, we got a nice, coast-to-coast distribution of teas this year, Boston to Victoria. I posted nine teas, and 350 people viewed them over the weekend. That’s a nice bit of sharing already, and more will come!

Keep those tea parties coming!

Our Emilie Loring Tea has concluded for this year, but don’t let that stop you. If you have a tea or another kind of Emilie-centered event, at any time, send me a photo and a little write-up, and I’ll find a place for it in a coming post.

Thanks to all, for serving tea and drinking it, for reading the posts, for commenting here and on our Facebook page, and for returning week after week to enjoy all things Emilie Loring.

Happy Landings!