Tea Time with Melody Q: April 2014

From Us to You

Hope You Have a

This is what was in our Easter baskets.

What was in yours? And what is your favorite Easter candy?

Best wishes,

Winterthur and Downton Abbey III

Winterthur Museum,Garden, and Library

Downton Abbey Costume Exhibit

the conclusion of our trip to Winterthur for the Downton Abbey costume exhibit and tea!

Garden Tour

We headed back to the visitor center and hopped on the garden tram for a tour before 3 o’clock tea. The tram was full so I sat on Xyra’s lap.

The gardens were so pretty. A lot of the are still looked like winter, but the green grass and flowers and trees that were blooming shouted SPRING!

Then it was off to tea. A footman took our name and seated us. Everyone had their own tea-for-one set and could choose their tea from a section in the center of the table. Then one of the maids would come take care of keeping our tea hot and directing us to the buffet.

We had the Winterthur Afternoon Tea from Eastern Shore Tea Company! (Remember the raven/black current and blood orange teas we reviewed. That company created this blend.)

There were finger sandwiches, stuffed mushrooms, tartlets (we didn’t take the tartlets), and cauliflower soup for the savory course.

Of course, the sweet course had a lot to our liking. Scones with lemon curd, petit fours, cookies, maple horns, chocolate mousse tartlets, chocolate covered strawberries, shortbread, and coconut macaroons (didn’t take any of those either).

We were having a grand time visiting and while finishing our tea I had to have one more blueberry petit fours. They were sooooo good!

Heading Home

These were my favorite flower today. I think we should plant some at home.

Hope you had a great time with us.

Have a great day!

Best wishes,

Additional helpful links:
Visiting Downton

#winterthurdowntonabbey
#downtonabbeytea

Winterthur and Downton Abbey II

Winterthur Museum,Garden, and Library

Downton Abbey Costume Exhibit

To The Exhibit

When Nana Kestrel and her friends arrived we took the tram over to the house. The container gardens at the entrance were very pretty.

Then it was upstairs to the exhibit! The docents told us that we could take pictures. Yay! All of them were very nice to me. Many of the other visitors were as well.

The cast portraits greet you.

Lady Edith’s wedding episode was so sad, but everyone looked so lovely. The boards discussed how the costumes came to be. The costume designers here started with bits of vintage clothing and branched out from there to make a full costume.

Sometimes you don’t see all the details on TV. Like the train of the wedding gown. The train is vintage and the hem of the dress was created to match.

It was warm enough that we could have been in summer dresses.

Aren’t they pretty? I liked these a lot.

We don’t hunt, but the hunting tweeds were really nice. Lady Rosamund’s is awesome. (Did you know that the actress playing Lady Rosamund was Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond’s Moneypenny?)

One of the really neat things about the exhibit is that it compared life at Downton to what was actually happening during that time period at Winterthur. During those years it was the manor house and working farm of the DuPont family. This was their tea set and favorite tea blend (in the red box). You can’t tell from here, but the sugar cubes are really Styrofoam with glitter to make them sparkle like sugar would.

This board showed us the information about the DuPont’s preferred tea.

In the box we could see what the tea blend looked like and smell it. It was really smoky smelling. I bet it made a really strong cup of tea.

Matthew’s proposal was another favorite episode. Mary’s dress reminds me of garnets. So lovely and rich in color.

At the Exhibit store, I met two very pretty friends. They were helping to sell Downton Abbey and period inspired wares. Violet’s dress is really pretty. We chatted about tea for a few minutes.

So was Rose’s. Rose liked her spot by the fashions. She had fun watching the ladies try on all the different hats.

I took a moment to rest on this pretty chair. But Xyra saw some other woman pick me up to get a better look at the pillows. So she made sure I stayed close after that.