The second annual "High Tea" fundraiser held by the Western Sonoma County Historical Society yesterday at Luther Burbank's (famous plant-breeder, 1849-1926) Gold Ridge Farm (registered in the National Register of Historic Places) in Sebastopol, Northern California, was a rousing success!
The members of the committee brought fresh flowers, lace, artwork, flower garlands and all manner of exquisite decorations which transformed the little "Caretaker's Cottage" at the Farm into a Parisian tea room!
Three different groups of ladies and gentlemen were seated during the afternoon and treated to a wide assortment of teas, petite fours, scones, fresh fruit, chocolates and finger sandwiches after which two different storytellers told clever, enjoyable, little tales for their amusement. Then attendees were given the option of receiving a short tour of the Farm by yours truly!
We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day for the event!
Before the seating for each group, the attendees were greeted by hostesses outside and encouraged to don a hat before entering for the occasion from an assortment brought by various members...
A mirror was provided to assure the attendees they had chosen that "perfect chapeau"!
Here are some of the first group of attendees all decked out in their "chapeaus"!
The guests were greeted by the sight of the Eiffel Tower as they entered "The Parisian Tea Room":
Here's the dining room before the first seating of guests:
And here is another photo that I took during the first seating of guests:
Here are a couple of the gorgeous flower arrangements (gathered from members' gardens) that graced the venue:
I led tours of Burbank's Farm ranging from 6 to 12 people after each seating and everyone seemed to enjoy them very much! I got a lot of very good feedback through the hostesses with people saying that they learned a great deal about Burbank and the Farm during the tours.
A wonderful thing happened to me personally after the last tour group... I met a lady who had taken the tour who was born on the SAME DAY and YEAR that I was!!! We exchanged email addresses and made a pact that we are going to celebrate our birthday together next year! :^D
All in all, the "High Tea" was a great success as a fundraiser -- bringing in much-needed funds to the historical society and served as an "educational" event at which many of the attendees learned things about local Burbank-related history as well!
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Comments: 28
Thanks so much for posting this to
my group
Makes me long to go venturing out, especially over to John Philipp's Marin County where I visited another quaint little place similar to this a couple of years ago.
Keep 'em coming. It's so much fun.
These are places close enough for me to easily do in a day!
Exactly, Sue!
ROFL, Ron!!! I'm with YOU!
As far as the tea and crumpets though - a good cup of coffee and a slice of homemade cake would be more down my alley.
Then again - cool cucumber sandwiches and petite four with a strong cup of tea will do fine as long as I get the tour of the gardens.:)
Glad to hear it went well - the parisian tea room and the flowers all looked lovely:)
Thank YOU for viewing, Lawrence...:o)
It was actually QUITE fun, LaRue!
Send her over next year, Moggy! ...lol...
I'm so with you and Ron, Rose... I'm far more the coffee and cake type myself... The decorating committee did an absolutely WONDERFUL job! Right down to the smallest detail!
I remember those tea sets, JC! (at least, I remember the China ones anyway...) Some of them were quite ornate!