Day 31: Flower Power (Serenity Tea Shop)

This afternoon (Friday) Heather and I and the kids went to the lovely little town of Zionsville, Indiana, to a tea shop called Serenity. This place was amazing. Teacups and plates everywhere...curly-backed chairs...good food, well presented...flowers, lace, and beauty in every nook and cranny. Even the toilets were beautiful. And the children who ordered grilled cheese had never seen anything like this before. (I bet you haven't, either!)

They had a whole variety of loose leaf teas available - my new favourite. Heather tried their signature tea, which they've created and trademarked, and I chose the 'Flower Power' tea because it not only smelled amazing, but looks like a basket of fruit even before you pour in the hot water. The kind lady who served us very graciously let me take pictures of the dry tea, bringing out a fancy plate to pour it in so my picture would be beautiful, and I managed to capture it being poured out from the strawberry-tea-pot into my cup! I'm becoming, I think, much more discerning in my tea photos! Some days it's hard to take something that's completely different, but I'm loving all these different teas that Heather and I are trying.

Flower Power is a red tea (I presume this means a rooibos base) "with orange, cinnamon, wild cherry bark, stevia, rosehips and honeybush".  I wasn't sure whether the cinnamon would bring out a Christmassy feel, but the cherry and rose and orange are the stronger flavours here, so they combined to make a light but solid flowery tea, the cherry flavour, I think, being the strongest.  The tea pours out as a pale pink, and I just sat and inhaled it for a few moments. It's one of those teas that smells almost better than it tastes - almost.

Heather and I had two pots of tea, and the kids shared these with us as well. It's so enjoyable to share the tea with the kids, even the boys getting into the different flavours. It's fun to see the looks on their faces when they smell the dry tea - "Mmmmmmmm" with eyes closed.  (Andrew isn't such a tea fan, so he obediently smells it and remains noncommittal.)  I had a turkey and asparagus wrap, which came with a butterscotch-and-chocolate-chip scone, which I think had been baked fresh about thirty seconds before I ate it. Incredible.  Highly recommended - and reminded me of the reason why you order a scone with your tea. It just goes together, like cookies and cream or roses and chocolate!

Afterwards I sat out in the sun for a few minutes while the kids scoured the garden for pine cones (which the boys labelled 'missiles') and sticks ('machine guns').  I guess the girly tea didn't change their innate natures!

I hardly remember my walk of the day, I must confess, but I still enjoyed getting out in the fresh air early in the morning.  I think I was out for almost 50 minutes - Heather almost sent out the cavalry to find me! For some strange reason that walk seems to change every single day!

Walk length: 50 minutes