Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The twenty-third luminous thing...

...tea biscuits!


Oh, it was certainly a day for tea here in Nova Scotia! Rain and cold wind gusting up to 20 mph off the Bay, whose temperature fluctuates only a few degrees between winter and summer. We went in to Digby and ended up in Mag Pye's again, having tea and eating tea biscuits.

Tea biscuits are not biscuits, in the American sense, and not scones, in either the British or the American sense. They are flour and baking powder and lard and milk, and taste heavenly with butter and homemade strawberry jam. I asked Mag to wrap up the four she had for our ferry trip tomorrow, and she said no, no, I'll make you some fresh ones and off she went in the back to whip some together. We went back to the inn with four fresh tea biscuits, a small container of strawberry jam, butter, and her tea biscuit recipe. And no, they don't need sugar, or frosting, or chocolate chips! I've gone back to my roots here, either my Scottish roots on my mother's side or just my the-way-tea-is-meant-to-be-drunk roots from my early exposure to Great Britain, black tea with milk and pastry that's not overly sweet and full of candy.

We watched the Bay while we ate, wild in the wind, whitecaps even in the inlet which, we were told, meant big waves and rough weather out in the Bay proper. The flags of all the Canadian provinces lined the park across from Mag Pye's, and the wind kept them flying straight out. It was high tide, and the Bay water was still green and brown from the mud stirred up by the storms.





Back at the inn, Rosie greeted us at the door and followed us upstairs. She was a bit hesitant to come in our room but our packages won her over and she came in to explore what we had and beg for smoked almonds. She did get one...notice the antennae ear.





Darren and Vance were going out to dinner at the Mountain Gap Inn, and invited us along. The Mountain Gap is just up the road, has new owners, and they wanted to try it. Two old wisteria trees were growing outside the inn door, a white one and a purple one, entwined and blooming and smelling lovely even in the cold wind. Mom and I had scallops, Darren and Vance the haddock, the food was great and we had a lovely time.




A very happy after-dinner group! From left: mom, Vance, me, Darren. Back home we had tea with Darren and now must pack for leaving tomorrow. Still windy and very cold, and we're sorry to go, we've had just a lovely time here.





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