What is your favorite warm beverage? It’s February, and by now you have tweaked the art of finding comfort in a cup. Is it tea, coffee or a hot toddy?
Maybe it’s hot chocolate!
In promoting the Fifth Season of Downton Abbey, PBS used tea to tantalize. Twitter was chirping with the hashtag #BIGsip and illustrations of how to party like the British:
The tea at these fancy gatherings was probably brewed through ceramic or metal sieves. I doubt there was a tea bag in sight!
Once I was invited to a tea party at my professor’s home. There was a bold disclaimer on the invitation: Tea will NOT be served. Instead, there were other fanciful beverages, none of which was served warm. Twice I invited faculty to my home, and we actually had flavored tea – and coffee.
So, back to the question: What is your favorite warm beverage (and/or treat) this time of year? Spread some sugar, honey, or . . . .
A woman is like a tea bag ~ you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt
Bonus: RANDOM ACTS OF COFFEE! Coffee drinker pays it forward ordering coffee for the next 500 (gasp!) customers at Canadian coffee shop.Read all about ithere!
When I registered online for the 5th season premiere of Downton Abbey, there were fifty-nine (yes, 59!) salutations to choose from on the drop-down menu. These included Father, Monsignor, Cantor, Rabbi, Lieutenant Commander, Dean, Major, Mayor, and the humbler Mr. or Ms. I didn’t see “Lady”! Other designations included Sister and Professor. At different stages of life I have been both: Sister Longenecker and then Professor Beaman.
Downton Abbey is a cross-section of the social strata of post-Victorian England, an assemblage of characters from both upstairs and downstairs. Here it is reflected in the postures and apparel of cast members in the series: maids in aprons, ladies in plumed hats, men hatless or in fedoras.
Last year when our PBS station invited us to a gala celebration for Season 4, we stepped right into the show along with other party goers wearing period costumes and cast members appearing as life-size cutouts for picture taking. You can see it here.
This year we were greeted at the door with a trivia card. Among the questions was this: Lady Violet thinks her new gardener, Pegg, has stolen what item for her home? The choices are knife, cane, bell, or nutcracker. I don’t remember, do you?
With souvenir tea bag and an invitation to join in the #BIGsip with #DowntonPBS
First, we met a maid from downstairs with duster in hand . . .
A clansman from across the border, clad in plaid . . .
Middle-class Americans making a vain attempt to mingle with the British aristocracy . . .
Sister Janice and I pose before the entire cast with headgear rivaling the goofiness of Princesses Beatrix and Eugenie at the wedding of Will and Kate:
And finally, the genteel Jennifer Pastore, proudly garbed in a more-than-100-year-old dress worn by her great grandmother, Elizabeth Vann, the first woman editor of a newspaper in Florida (Madison, FL). A flawless little black dress – a perfect fit!
And then, the climax of the evening: the screening of episode 1, season 5, which begins in 1924 – the radio a hot, new technology.
We were on the edge of our seats as each scene unfolded, asking, What happened to Edith’s child? Where is the fire? What about Anna?
And then of course, scenes with seeds for future episodes:
Who outwits the wily Thomas?
Who wears a wedding gown?
Does Mary have a new love interest?
What is Carson up to?
Throughout the movie, there were more zingers than usual from the Dowager Countess, Lady Violet: “There’s nothing more simple than avoiding people you don’t like!”
Do you think Dowager Countess Violet is right in either quote? Why or why not?
Care to comment about social class in the show? Or in present-day society?
P.S. Despite rumors to the countrary, the station manager announced unequivocally that there will be a Season 6!
Watching episodes of Downton Abbey is like scarfing down balls of caramel corn while swilling champagne. The New Yorker
I encountered Julian Fellowes, writer and creator of the Downton Abbey series, when he played Kilwillie, a distillery-owning character in the British drama series Monarch of the Glen. As an actor, he never succeeded in winning the hand of Molly, the land-rich, but beleaguered widow, the girl of his dreams. But as master mind of an award-winning PBS series set in post-Edwardian England, Oscar-winning Fellowes is surrounded by drama and divas galore.
Presented in an Upstairs, Downstairs format, Downton Abbey, now in its 4th season, depicts the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and the servants who work for them. If you are a devotee, you know that jealousy, revenge, and closely guarded secrets power the plot portrayed by glittering, gossipy, and beguiling men and women against a backdrop of history, politics, and the march of technology.
The series Downton Abbey, a Masterpiece Theatre classic, is now a flourishing brand and there is merchandising to match:
Tuesday evening, my Southern friends and I, escorted by husband Cliff, brave the mild wintry weather to attend a premiere of the 4th season at WJCT, Jacksonville’s PBS station. Period costumes are encouraged and attendees do their best to comply with apparel from the Edwardian period to the flapper age.
We begin with an appetizer at our house:
Mincemeat tarts from Scotland
Tickets and a programme:
Then oohs and aahs over wardrobe choices!
And there is a flapper in our midst, heralding the coming decade!
Finally, the new episode begins!
After the screening, inquiring minds want to know:
What zingers did Lady Violet fire off?
After her period of mourning, who will be Lady Mary’s next love interest?
What new technology is introduced?
Who is in Carson’s arms at the end of the episode?
Plain and Fancy 