Tea for Me in Cape May

What a difference a week makes, huh? Last week at this time I was enjoying a fantastic weekend in Cape May, shopping a bit, walking on the bay, and attending the very inspiring TEDx event at Congress Hall. I enjoyed my boxed lunch ("Shoobie") at TED on the Congress Hall veranda in a wooden rocking chair. Other folks were enjoying the Halloween Parade, peak birding, and other fun outdoor activities.This weekend, my friends in America's Oldest Seashore Resort are preparing for what could be a historic weather event officially named Hurricane Sandy. Because it will combine with some other, lesser, weather events and the full moon which means higher high tides, it's unofficially dubbed the "Frankenstorm." Friends of mine who have been looking forward to this weekend in Cape May for months had to cut it short and weren't able to do the Skimmer Salt Marsh Safari trip, or visit Jersey Shore Alpacas, or do just about anything as the town covered itself in plywood. I'm sitting on my couch exactly 100 miles north of my Cape May couch reading about my Cape May friends' preparations and last-minute decisions whether to stay or go before Sandy comes to town. Officially, citizens of Cape May have to leave by 4:00pm today. It's scary stuff. So just in case you would like to distract yourself from this dangerous event (provided you have found a safe place) how 'bout I tell you about my very Cape Mayish shopping trip last Saturday?

If you're familiar with Cape May, New Jersey, America's Oldest Seashore Resort, you'll know this odd little spot where Jackson and Perry Streets meet. A grandiose miniature golf course, a municipal parking lot (behind the sign above), some typical Victorian homes, and two antique stores populate the corners. Last Saturday, I focused on the big, triangular antique store called Antiques Emporia. This building has housed antiques for as long as I can remember (and I go back pretty far in Cape May!). Rather a conglomeration of small individual stalls than a giant antique store, this emporium offers a quirky shopping experience. Over the summer my finds were some 1940s and 1950s McCalls craft magazines and a Christmas tea cup and saucer.

Antiques Emporia and Tea by the Sea

Last Saturday I bought an antique Royal Doulton teacup and saucer, white trimmed with gold.

To accompany my new Royal Doulton acquisition, I spent some quality shopping time in the point of this triangular building, where we find Tea by the Sea. They sell fancy gourmet loose teas, a wide selection of bagged tea, teacups, teapots, tea accessories, Chinese tea sets, tea cozies, and tea books. With this shop as my tea consultant, my tea time will never get boring. Just look at the selection of twelve tea treats I brought home last weekend:

That Caramel Peach in the center was especially good.

I've become fond of an afternoon cup of tea ever since I realized that the tea plus the ritual of brewing the tea are effective stress-reducers. I feel as if I'm channeling my grandmother--I remember she loved tea. I have gathered one tea + saucer envoy from each of my sets, and I've been collecting a few antique representatives as well. Here's the gang waiting for duty on that same Grandma's sewing machine cabinet:

That's Mom's gray teapot and embroidered linen tablecloth, and the teacup + saucer with the pink roses represents her china. My official china is the Noritake Rothschild at the right end of the first row. It also has pink roses. The green in the foreground is from my Fiesta everyday stuff. The white behind it is from a set Mom bought me piece-by-piece at the Acme supermarket. The rest are treasures I found in my Cape May antique haunts.

At work the tea ritual is less fussy and more streamlined. At work I am rarely free at 3:00, but I refer to the afternoon anti-stress teatime as Tea at Three whenever I squeeze it in. My tea and tea accessories remind me of my Cape May hangouts. The tea ritual really does help to relieve stress, and the tea itself seems to calm the tummy. I think Grandma was onto something.

I'm not promising that a simple cup of tea will distract us from something as epic as a Frankenstorm, but it might help us relax. Go find the tea cozy and don't forget to "hot the pot" as Grandma would say--swish some hot water around in that teapot before the boiling water goes in. Today I'm enjoying some African Rooibos Red Tea and thinking about my Cape May friends, the animals in the Zoo, the alpacas at their farm, Victorian architecture that has seen storms like this before, and my cherished getaway 100 miles to the south.

Shipwrecked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Step Out! walkers gathered by the East Entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, October 6, 2012

I was in the neighborhood for the Step Out! walk for Diabetes on October 6, so I decided to step over to the Art Museum for lunch and culture.  The SHIPWRECK! exhibit I was anxious to see is in the Museum's annex called the Perelman Building which I was also looking forward to visiting. I was delighted with both.

SHIPWRECK! featured painter Winslow Homer, the star of nineteenth-century maritime painting, and more specifically, his masterpiece, "The Life Line."The painting is stunning, of course, skillfully depicting the drama of the rescue. The rescuer in the painting brings the limp woman to safety over a wild, stormy sea. They are using a breeches buoy, a typical lifesaving device from the 1800s, where the victim is placed in what looks like a pair of short pants hanging from a rope and pulled to shore. In Homer's painting, the woman is riding the breeches "sidesaddle" to protect her modesty. The rescuer's face is hidden by the woman's scarf following the tradition of portraying anonymous rescuers. There are quite a few examples of this in the SHIPWRECK! exhibit. Ancillary to the stunning painting is a video showing with x-ray photography the changes Homer made as he created the painting. The rope from which the breeches buoy hangs was originally straight, but Homer made it bend to show the weight and strain of the struggling people. The rescuer's face had originally been visible, but Homer painted the red scarf over it to render the rescuer anonymous. Here's an interesting video discussion of "The Life Line" from smarthistoryvideos:



Winslow Homer and the nineteenth-century maritime tradition are the focus of this large exhibit, but my other top favorite is Vernet's eighteenth-century "Shipwreck". This dramatic painting shows a wrecked vessel with the storm and rescue still in progress. It reminds the viewer subliminally of the potential force of nature, a concept that occurs to me during storms near the sea. This painting was borrowed from the National Gallery of Art for the SHIPWRECK! exhibit. Check out this online interpretation of the painting created by the National Gallery of Art.

"I wasn't expecting all this!" remarked a fellow art lover in the gallery. Me, too: this exhibit covered shipwrecks, marine painting as a genre, "Heroes of the Coastline," the folks waiting at home, and Winslow Homer before and after "The Life Line." I think my friends on the coast, experts on lighthouses and maritime history, would love this exhibit. It's worth the trip!

The other standout art from yesterday's visit was the Perelman Building itself. The Art Deco building was finished in 1927 for the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company. It became the annex of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2007, and now houses galleries, a museum shop, library, and cafe. Examples from the original, pre-renovated Art Deco are everywhere. Another day, when my feet aren't sore from fundraising walks, I will explore this building further. It is right across multiple lanes of traffic from the West Entrance of the Art Museum, accessible by foot or shuttle. Here are some teaser shots:

The Art Deco facade of the Perelman Building

One of the big Perelman doors

Take this staircase down to the Library

The Art Deco Perelman Building, annex to the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Mind Mapping with Margaret

I don't know if you know, how could you, really, that I have an interest in mind mapping and other types of visual organization tools. I contend that these tools, especially mind mapping, are effective ways not only to organize information, but also to learn more deeply and find connections between things. I spent a sabbatical studying mind maps and experimenting with other kinds of tools, and I wrote about my experience on my other blog, Margaret MindMapping. I only post there when I have a new idea or breaking mind mapping news.

A mind map of my mind map project

I posted on that other blog this morning, on the concept of confidence, and how we can become confident about knowledge. Of course I advocate the use of mind maps, and I use them all the time, but I acknowledge the skeptics. I also acknowledge that skeptics sometimes see the mind-map light. This is what I call mind map breaking news.

This scanned artifact shows my notes for a presentation I did in 2010. My presentations (usually) don't seem scripted because they aren't: I'm usually speaking from a mind map. Sometimes, I'm speaking about mind maps.

So take a look at my other colorful mind maps over on the other blog on this dreary, grayish day, and see if maybe this non-linear way of organizing can help you gain more confidence with information. It's just a thought--I won't bombard you with posts or try to convince you. Just take a look.

An early electronic mind map using OpenMind software. One of my favorite examples, this illustrated mind map helped me come up with an effective form for an award-winning essay. Just sayin'.

Gimme Some Dim Sum (in Philadelphia)

A dim sum cart rolls by.

This is the cryptic ticket

Friends accompanied us to the Imperial Inn in Chinatown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA to experience the dim sum. I had heard of this but never been: it is kind of like a Chinese brunch buffet, but you sit still and the food selections on small plates roll around on carts. There's a cryptic ticket on the corner of the table, and when you choose a small plate of dumplings or spring rolls, or a slightly larger plate of sticky rice, the server puts a circle or an 'X' on the ticket. We really had no idea what this would cost, but in the end we were pleasantly surprised. We were all full when we left and spent only $45 total for the four of us.

This thing was like a potato, but more likely deep-fried mashed taro.

There are many things to try, but some of us (me) have to be careful of shellfish. Many of the selections on Sunday included shrimp, so I watched many of those carts roll past without yielding a tasty morsel. Tiny shrimps made unwelcome appearances in some of the items that were supposed to be shrimp-free. Luckily my shellfish allergy is on the mild side and Fred was standing by ready to confiscate any shrimp that appeared on my plate. Some got through our defense system, and I will blame the weird headache I experienced later that afternoon on those sneaky shellfish. There were Chinese steamed (beef) meatballs, and some combination of things wrapped in a cumbersome lotus leaf and then steamed.

Steamed lotus leaf with stuff inside

There was a rumor about fried chicken feet, but I prefer to believe someone was pulling my leg with that one. (Alas, I checked, they are chicken feet and they are called Phoenix claws.)

This bun is filled with pineapple custard. Isn't that a pretty plate?

Dessert! Don't forget dessert! The dessert cart rolled by periodically loaded with sweets. We were tempted by little egg custards in pastry cups and sweet buns filled with pineapple custard.

Denise brought her own chopsticks in their snazzy case.

The restaurant was packed, and everyone seemed to be enjoying their dim sum experience. Half the diners seemed to be Chinese and half not. I was assured that there usually isn't such an overwhelming amount of shrimp--maybe it was on sale somewhere. I'd enjoy another dim sum experience sometime.

To finish off this excursion, we walked around the corner to a large Chinese store called Shanghai Bazaar. This place is lit up beautifully at night when I drive by, but I had never been inside. There are clothes made from beautiful silks and brocades, purses, chopsticks, tea sets and Mah Jongg sets, paper kites and books in Chinese. In the back were dragon costumes, the kind with the huge heads that appear on the streets of Philadelphia at Chinese New Year. I showed restraint and bought only a couple of handmade greeting cards. I'm thinking about those tea cups with the matching lids, and how stunning some of those textiles would be worked into a crazy quilt. I think I'll be back. Anyone interested in going for dim sum?

Shanghai Bazaar: I could have wandered around here for hours.

My First e-book: The Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar

The idea for the Advent blog project occurred to me one November day.I didn't think about it--I just jumped in. Sometimes the best ideas work that way. My quest was to find a way around the blue feelings I tend to experience around the holidays. It has been my experience, since i am not a parent and no longer a daughter, that I'm trapped outside the usual holiday paradigms. Does that happen to you--do you ever feel like an outsider looking in on your own life as it zooms by? It's a weird concept, but from what I read I am not alone. Some people (me included sometimes) get to feeling sad because our adult holidays can never live up to the magical times we had as kids. Other people (me included sometimes) get so wrapped-up in Christmas preparations that they almost forget why we have a holiday in the first place.  I wondered--if I focused instead on the parts of the holiday that have meaning for me or the things that I simply enjoy, could I share these things with others who might need a boost? Would I have enough stories, recipes, crafts, and places to fill 25 days of Advent? Would readers want to see a photo of my Nativity scene with the German Oompah band included? My approach to the blog project, and then the ebook, was to be more inclusive than our media is. You don't have to have children, grandchildren, a freshly-cut Douglass Pine, or fancy parties to attend.

I did have enough ideas, especially since my readers gave me some great suggestions. I shared them, and my blog practically went viral for the month of December. It was exciting and joyful. I was caught up in the creativity of attempting to include photos and meaningful posts each day and appliqueing numbers for each day on fabric coasters. These appeared at the top of each post. My friends enjoyed the blog, told their friends, and my readership grew.  That wasn't my original intention for creating the Advent posts, but it remains a wonderful benefit! I look at my blog's analytics everyday to get an idea who is reading and what kinds of blogs get the most hits. I didn't bother doing that before the Advent project.

Why not, then, polish up this blog content, maybe add some depth here and there, and create an ebook? I worked on this new project steadily, and finally it is finished! It's available on Amazon as a Kindle ebook. I chose the Kindle platform because it seemed simple and required no advance cash. (I may consider adding more platforms later, depending on how this experiment works out.) Once the Microsoft Word document was finished, I went onto the Kindle publishing site and found a free video and a free accompanying ebook guide that show how to bring it online. If you are thinking of experimenting with ebooks, I recommend that you check these out while you are writing, so you can keep the various formatting tips in mind. For example, in order to make a working Table of Contents, you have to assign Heading Style #1 (on the tool bar in Word) to each chapter heading. I had to go back and do this to each day's offering. If I had known, I could have streamlined the process by fixing these as I wrote and edited and edited and edited.

This document then has to be saved as a "Web Page, Filtered." This terminology frightened me, but alas, it is one of the choices in the Save As drop-down box. Because I have many images in the text, I had to create a zip file which intimidated me. This was simple once I watched the video and looked at the guide. I also had to create some kind of cover. Amazon suggests using Microsoft Paint. I had never used that, but I managed to design something decent within the hour. That gets uploaded separately and doesn't go into the Word document (in case you were wondering). The actual uploading process took about an hour and was way simpler than I expected. The book showed up on Amazon the next morning. Here's where you can get your copy: The Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar.


What a thrill it is to have this particular project online and available to anyone. Did I mention it was a labor of love? Even better, the stories touched people and the ideas brought back memories. I couldn't be happier about this!

By the way, those numbered fabric doorsI used for each post or chapter did not go to waste. I used them in a big Advent Quilt, complete with pockets behind them and a gold Variable Star block on top. I included a description of how I put that together at the end of the ebook. Here's a peek:

That's Fred holding up the quilt in front of the neighbor's holly tree.

East Point Lighthouse: A Lesser-Known New Jersey Lighthouse

 The design of this lighthouse pleases me. The two-story keeper's quarters below seem like they'd be pleasant enough, and the trip to the actual light would be easy enough even carrying a bucket of whale oil. It is isolated still with salt marsh and bay all around, ideal for a person who enjoys solitary pursuits such as writing, reading, sewing, photographing, blogging. Okay, so we don't use whale oil anymore, but we also don't have keepers living at the light. I'm just daydreaming, looking for my next big career.

East Point Lighthouse (1849)

 East Point Lighthouse is less than an hour north and west from Cape May in a car, and even less if you take a boat or plane. It's on the bayside, and was deemed necessary in 1849 to guide sailors into the Maurice River. It was called the Maurice River Lighthouse until 1913. In 1842 it was outfitted with a sixth-order Fresnel lens and received its modern lens in 1980. It is the second-oldest lighthouse in New Jersey (after Sandy Hook). The Maurice River Historical Society was formed in 1971 with the goal of restoring the lighthouse, and that renovation is still going on.

East Point Lighthouse from the other side

We did not get to climb this light as it is only open on the third Sunday of the month from 1:00-4:00 or some such limited hours. Instead, we walked around and shot photos of the building, the bay, and the marshy surroundings. We had an idea of a picnic, but ultimately ran to the car swatting at bugs: biting ones, ugly ones, invisible ones. Oh. My. Gosh. Don't forget the bug spray if you go. This place is why they invented bug spray.

My Ring-Necked Pheasant (and MINIwindshield wiper)

On a brighter note, as we were leaving we spotted a very distinctive game bird. We couldn't identify the thing (we specialize in shore birds) but later found it in the field guide: a Ring-Necked Pheasant. I didn't score a super-clear photo, but National Geographic did: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/ring-necked-pheasant/.




As I mentioned, East Point Lighthouse is situated near a marsh. I photographed this wooden structure on our previous trip when the grasses were brown (it was November), and here is how it looked this week (August).

Tumble-down shack in the marsh near the East Point Lighthouse

I've been antiquing in Cape May!

I've been antiquing in Cape May. Today was a non-beach day with a heavy gray sky, so I did my errands and then headed to town to do a little shopping. Alas, everyone else vacationing in Cape May had the same idea. This region is dense with antique shops that today were also dense with people.  I try to stay away from these places during this time of austerity, but last month I made the mistake of going into a shop in July with a visiting friend. I'm drawn to china and linens, and anything to do with needlework. I managed to limit my purchases to two McCall's Needlework magazines from the 1940s, but let's just say the snowball started rolling down the hill then.

1940s needlework magazines

I left four 1950s McCall's Needlework magazines behind, but I thought about them, and today I went back to adopt them. Someone had rearranged the old magazines (LIFE, LOOK, and some more obscure titles) and I thought I had missed my opportunity. Rest easy, reader, I found them. Here they are posing on my quilt.

1950s needlework magazines

Also last month, I was working on a little project about drinking tea promptly at 3:00 daily to alleviate stress. I thought how lovely it would be to take tea in an antique cup and saucer. I found this White Dogwood pair in the West End Garage and made it mine. I have this vision of someday hosting a little tea party with like-minded people, and everyone has a different teacup and saucer set. The china itself would inspire conversation. We'd use antique linens, of course, and nibble on tasty little finger sandwiches and cookies. Well-behaved shopper that I am, I left behind another set just like it plus an extra saucer. But again, I kept thinking about the second cup and saucer and saucer, and today I went back to make them mine.

Stangl Pottery White Dogwood cup and saucer and saucer

Scammell plate

These are Stangl Pottery's White Dogwood design; Stangl Pottery is from Trenton (and Flemington, NJ); Trenton is where I live most of the time. This isn't the first time I bought Trenton pottery in Cape May--years ago I found this cool plate at a flea market. It's from the Scammell company which closed in the 1950s. Trenton was huge in pottery back in the day. Locals are familiar with the "Trenton Makes The World Takes" Bridge. Pottery, china, tile, and ceramics (the kind used for toilets/commodes/potties) are some of the things Trenton made in its heyday. Luckily, I remember the company names from my nascent librarian days at the Trenton Public Library and I snap pieces up when I see them. Here's a history of Trenton pottery from Ellarslie, the Trenton City Museum.

I like European-made stuff, too. Check out this cool Czechoslovakian set from my Grandma Douglas (complete with doilies):

What color would you call that? Goldenrod?

Collecting antiques can be fun, imagining who might have owned an item before or imagining your own grandmother using it for a special occasion. Today held a special reward for me, though, because I found the missing link! I had been musing over the very last entry in my forthcoming Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar ebook. I had decided to use that tea-as-stress-relief idea, but just not hitting the right angle for the little essay. Then I saw this beauty, and it all came together. I sacrificed my haircut money for it, but I drove home with a big grin on my face. There it is posing on the porch bistro set!

Christmas teacup and saucer, made in the USA