![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A different kind of bubble tea
Aug. 27th, 2020 02:52 pmOver the winter, we kept saying that come summer, we really must go to the Billings Estate again for tea on the lawn. Then in March, lockdown came. Museums called closed their doors and even when the warmer weather arrived, their grounds remained closed except for quick walk-throughs. Parking lots, park benches and picnic tables and playgrounds remained off limits.
But then several phases of re-opening began. By early August, a handful of museums opened in a limited sort of way, to a limited number of visitors willing to adhere to their COVID-WISE limitations. The Billings Estate Museum even decided to offer a version of tea on the lawn. A kind of bubble tea, in that you stay in your bubble and do the masking and distancing thing with others; a novel Coronavirus take-away tea:
https://ottawa.ca/en/arts-heritage-and-events/museums-and-historic-sites/billings-estate-national-historic-site
And that's what we decided to try today.
It was raining lightly when we set out, but armed with a car-blanket and some plastic bags, we decided after picking up our tea-boxes to brave one of the picnic tables on the grounds. Our meal consisted of some little sandwiches of cucumber and cream cheese, a scone with butter and jam, an orange and two compostable cups of Billings Blend tea (a black tea with a touch of rose hip).
By the time we'd finished eating, the rain had mostly eased up and we set about exploring the grounds a little more: we didn't go through the indoor exhibits, but we were able to look into some of the smaller buildings from behind a rope; we walked around the gardens and through the graveyard and along the riverside trail and read the little plaques along the way.
In many ways, it was perfect walking weather: not too hot, not buggy, few other people about but some harmless wildlife: a goldfinch, a chipmunk munching on an acorn, a bunch of squirrels...
I did wish towards the end that I had thought to bring a pair of light weight gloves, though.
Once I got home, I hunted for a book I knew I had bought at some second-hand book sale. It's called Billings Bridge: My village, my life. Edited by Gérard and Bernard Pelot and published in 1999 by a small press in Gatineau, it bills itself as "An anecdotal history from 1900 to 1960 by "The Villagers", a group of seniors of St. Thomas Aquinas parish, Ottawa" There are lots of fascinating old photos of village landmarks, people and artefacts combined with memories recounted by some two dozen interviewees of the way they lived and worked and what they did for fun. A great book to leaf through or even to read from cover to cover. Fascinating to compare how the area was then to how it is now.
All in all, I think this will rank as one of the highlights of my summer.
But then several phases of re-opening began. By early August, a handful of museums opened in a limited sort of way, to a limited number of visitors willing to adhere to their COVID-WISE limitations. The Billings Estate Museum even decided to offer a version of tea on the lawn. A kind of bubble tea, in that you stay in your bubble and do the masking and distancing thing with others; a novel Coronavirus take-away tea:
https://ottawa.ca/en/arts-heritage-and-events/museums-and-historic-sites/billings-estate-national-historic-site
And that's what we decided to try today.
It was raining lightly when we set out, but armed with a car-blanket and some plastic bags, we decided after picking up our tea-boxes to brave one of the picnic tables on the grounds. Our meal consisted of some little sandwiches of cucumber and cream cheese, a scone with butter and jam, an orange and two compostable cups of Billings Blend tea (a black tea with a touch of rose hip).
By the time we'd finished eating, the rain had mostly eased up and we set about exploring the grounds a little more: we didn't go through the indoor exhibits, but we were able to look into some of the smaller buildings from behind a rope; we walked around the gardens and through the graveyard and along the riverside trail and read the little plaques along the way.
In many ways, it was perfect walking weather: not too hot, not buggy, few other people about but some harmless wildlife: a goldfinch, a chipmunk munching on an acorn, a bunch of squirrels...
I did wish towards the end that I had thought to bring a pair of light weight gloves, though.
Once I got home, I hunted for a book I knew I had bought at some second-hand book sale. It's called Billings Bridge: My village, my life. Edited by Gérard and Bernard Pelot and published in 1999 by a small press in Gatineau, it bills itself as "An anecdotal history from 1900 to 1960 by "The Villagers", a group of seniors of St. Thomas Aquinas parish, Ottawa" There are lots of fascinating old photos of village landmarks, people and artefacts combined with memories recounted by some two dozen interviewees of the way they lived and worked and what they did for fun. A great book to leaf through or even to read from cover to cover. Fascinating to compare how the area was then to how it is now.
All in all, I think this will rank as one of the highlights of my summer.
