Invitation to Tea, Part II: Tablescape in Red

Come in and have a seat. Would you like to sit on the couch, next to the flowery pillow? The tea cakes are already waiting for you.

This is what the tables look like when you're not wearing your glasses:

Don't you just love the cow milk jug?

I don't think the cat is too happy about the cow milk jug, though. For one thing, it's bigger than the cat. And heavier. Life as a wooden cat is tough. It's so easy to fall off the edge.

(Hmm. What did I do with the background in the next picture? The frame looks rather different than in the other pictures...)

Don't be shy. Take a cookie. Or a tea cake. Or a Lindor egg. (You can't eat the rose buds, though. They're artificial, and plastic doesn't taste nice.)

You can put an astonishing amount of cookies into these Chinese bowls - and they still look only half full. Good thing I bought so many cookies, eh? (Ooops, now the secret is out. Yes, I did indeed buy those cookies. Originally the plan was to bake them, but after the not-quite pleasing results with the oat cookie recipe, I decided I wouldn't take any more chances with stupid recipes from stupid cook books which apparently don't include any truly wonderful recipes. And I couldn't really bake any Christmas cookies, could I?)

Anyways, that's what the cake stand looks from above:

I love the placemats. They're perfect for spring!

Well, now you just have to decide what kind of tea you'd like. And after we've eaten all the cookies and tea cakes, we could go for a walk at the river. And if we're very, very, very lucky it might start raining cats and dogs (which is what happened yesterday when my friends were visiting), so we could go drip-drip-dripping back home and console ourselves with the rest of the cookies. :-)

For now though, I have to go back to the dragons. I plan to finish the chapter on medieval and Renaissance dragons today, and have to take a look at Spenser's Faerie Queene. (Why aren't there any dragons in Heyer's mysteries??? Very inconsiderate of her!)