Late Summer Inspiration
Summer is truly at its zenith when my neighbour’s glorious purple hydrangeas reach peak perfection. Very generously, they allow me to raid the bushes, and I take full advantage. We pass their dozen or so hydrangea bushes every morning when we walk the dogs, and as the flowers deepen from lavender to rich purple, I find myself mentally scanning the china cupboards—pulling out patterns, putting them back, rearranging pieces in my head and musing over a menu for a late-summer tea.
This year, Gien Mûres won.
Its trailing blackberry vines seemed just right for the season, and the soft purple transferware picked up the colours of the hydrangeas beautifully.
From there, the rest of the table more or less arranged itself: plum-coloured placemats and glasses, botanical linens in mossy green, and a great exuberant mound of hydrangeas in the centre.
The Menu
That settled, my mind turned to the eats.
I decided on a lovely, rich afternoon tea, which is really a collection of small pleasures rather than one grand dish. This menu celebrates some of my favourite flavours of late summer, and I’ve shared each recipe separately if you’d like to recreate the gathering.
Classic English Tea Scones, of course.
With Lemon Curd, whipped cream (clotted cream is very hard to come by in Cape Cod) and black currant preserves.
To be sensible, let’s add Spinach, Fennel, Leek and Pine Nut Pinwheels.
And since gardens are currently overflowing with produce, some Late Summer Zucchini Bread.
To finish, a Plum Hazelnut Cream Cake.
A Room Collected Over Time
A word about the setting. The dining room has evolved much the way the tablescapes themselves have—slowly, one piece at a time. There was no grand plan. Instead, a family heirloom joined up with a couple of fortuitous antique-shop discoveries, which we augmented with custom-built furniture.
It started with four barley-twist dining chairs, which belonged to my grandfather and date from the seventeenth century. Their six companions (likely Edwardian) came from Country Dining Room Antiques (now sadly defunct), where we could scarcely believe our luck at finding six chairs from largely the same pattern. You can see the full lineup here in a table I set a few years ago with Copeland Spode Uplands Game. The older chairs have the cutout.
The chairs may have come from different centuries and different owners, but they had one thing in common: the seat inserts were exactly the same size! Recovering all ten in the same fabric was the finishing touch that tied the collection together.
The chandelier was never part of the plan at all. I had absolutely no intention of buying a chandelier when I wandered into Elise Abrams‘ shop shortly after we bought the house. I was on the hunt for china, naturally. But then I looked up. There it was—a vintage chandelier with a swirling hand-blown art glass bowl and matching torchère shades in exactly the right colours for the Cape. It dates from the 1930s, I believe, although it may be a little earlier.
Ironically, the newest pieces in the room are the table and hutch. We had both custom made to fit the space by a craftsman who specializes in reclaimed wood. Freshly built though they were, the old timber gave them an immediate sense of age and permanence. Sitting beside the barley-twist chairs, they never looked new—they simply looked as though they had finally come home.
Tea for Two (or Ten)
No afternoon tea would be complete without a proper pot of tea.
For this gathering I brought out two favourite Wedgwood patterns. The teapot, cups and saucers are from the Williamsburg Green collection, whose softly feathered green rims quietly echo the botanical linens and garden foliage. Alongside them, the cream jug and sugar bowl are from Wedgwood’s Cream on Cream shell-edged pattern. The subtle relief decoration adds just enough texture without distracting from the table.
The tea itself was every bit as carefully chosen. Plum Deluxe’s Bookshop Blend White Tea, with its notes of white tea, cinnamon, apple and ginger, seemed a fitting companion to an afternoon celebrating the flavours of late summer.
One Last Scone
With tea poured, there was only one thing left to do.
A warm scone, generously spread with clotted cream and topped with black currant preserves, has a way of slowing the world down. It encourages conversation to linger just a little longer, another cup to be poured, and perhaps a second scone to find its way onto the plate.
After all, that’s really what afternoon tea is about. Not perfection, nor ceremony, but taking the time to sit together around a beautiful table, enjoying simple pleasures while summer quietly gives way to autumn.
Sources:
- Dinner and salad plates: Gien Mûres (discontinued)
- Purple Footed Tumblers: American Lady Amethyst by Fostoria (Depression glass)
- Wine glasses: Buttercup by Fostoria (near Depression glass)
- Cutlery: Juliska Berry & Thread
- Teapot, cups and saucers: Vintage Wedgwood Williamsburg Green
- Cream and sugar: Vintage Wedgwood’s Cream on Cream shell-edge
- Linens: Pottery Barn or Williams Sonoma (discontinued)
