Artist Date, Week Seven ~ English Rose Tea Room

My next door neighbor goes away a lot for weekends and we always take in their mail, newspaper, and trash can.  Every time she comes over to my house to collect her mail, we always say we should go out to lunch, but it never seems to happen.  Two weeks ago when she came over to collect her mail once again we said we should go out to lunch.  This time, because I am in the midst of doing The Artist Way course,  I said to her that I have always wanted to go to the formal afternoon tea at the English Rose Tea Room in Carefree.  My neighbor who is English and still has all her family living in England has never been to the English Rose Tea Room, so she was delighted in my suggestion.  We invited a couple of our neighbors to go with us and today we enjoyed a very lovely and delicious traditional afternoon tea.  Even though I did not do this Artist Date alone, I am still counting it because the course got me off my duff to do something I have been talking about, but never seem to do.  Plus, it was nice spending time with my neighbors and having a real conversation with them for a change. 
 

The tea room is absolutely lovely, small and charming.  Their Duchess of Bedford’s Formal Afternoon Tea is served on antique bone china on a 3-tiered cake stand which includes tea sandwiches, scones with preserves and real Devon Cream, a selection of miniature cakes, pastries & petit fours, plus a pot of the most delicious tea I have ever tasted.

I have always wanted to go to a formal afternoon tea, and I knew that the Phoenician offered an afternoon tea, but the atmosphere and ambiance of The English Rose Tea Room cannot be beat.  Plus, according to my English neighbor, she said she thought the food here was the best.

It was not until the tea was over that we discovered that they have a huge box of beautiful hats that you are welcomed to wear while having tea.  Next year I am going to bring my mother-in-law and a few out-of-town guests there for tea, and I will make sure we all have on an appropriate hat. 


I have known about this lovely tea room for some time, but I have never gotten my butt there for tea.  Thanks to this Artist Way course I have no more excuses for not going anywhere anymore.  I just adopted the Nike slogan, "Just Do It."  The next time "I Do It" at the English Rose Tea Room, I am going to wear one of their pretty hats, and make everyone with me wear a hat too.

Listening is a form of accepting.

STELLA TERRILL MANN