Our Oriental Express tea/lunch outside.

So, things are a bit challenging at the moment, and lunch and afternoon tea is usually consisting of a quick sandwich and a to-go mug. But today Chloe and I decided to actually take some time.Also, it helps that the sun is shining. :)Some of the china which is not packed away and in storage is this beautiful Real Old Willow by Booths and those are the tea cups C and I wanted to use today. I'm not sure what everyone thinks but I love how the little red Mason's ironstone plate goes with practically every kind of china.Summer on the patio means we get to drag out our sun hats and this one is a new one for us. I found it in a flea market last Sunday. It reminds me of Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly and those 1950's classics where everyone wore Chanel or Dior. Doesn't C look like something out of Sabrina?Vancouver has some lovely idiosyncratic habits. One is that each evening a canon is fired over the harbour to denote 9pm. The boom echoes up the mountains and down again and is audible for miles and miles. Another is the first four notes of  "O Canada" are sounded at high noon. Just as I was taking our lunch out to the patio, O Canada played.Our lunch is very simple but ever so delicious. Melted brie with pine nuts, artisan toasties (Green olive for C and rye for me) and grapes.Blue and white is such a classic, isn't it? I've been learning a little about the hallmark stamps on the bottom of these Booths pieces and, while I only have a few, the earliest is the batch described as 1906-1921, but they all have the gold rim and not the brown. Fascinating to learn how long these bits of china have been around and remained unbroken.So now we will just finish our tea and head off to the beach for a swim and get away from the house and the floors.And later on this afternoon I'll come visit everyone. :)Linking very quickly, (because the varnish fumes are getting to us) with Terri, and Martha, and Sandi, and Bernideen.