'Til our good is better, and our better, best.
I am not entirely sure where this rhyming couplet comes from but for some reason I am tempted to think that it is what was cast into the end plates of Furphy & Sons' water carts; as used by the Australian Infantry Forces at Gallipoli and the like. I may have misremembered this entirely and I could very well be speaking a complete furphy but if I am correct then the following photograph represents today's prompt excellently.
Today's Photo Hunt challenge is "Good".
This is Boronia House in Mosman. Usually I find that Mosman with its trappings of wealth, finds ways to display that wealth that are vulgar and ugly. I admit that I don't like the Audi Q7s and BMW X5s that slowly Bob around the suburb, ferrying children to school and then idle chattering people to the overpriced coffee houses that litter suburb but when Mosman does find ways to beautify itself, it does pretty well (money helps). Money doesn't spontaneously buy taste and class but occasionally, it does renovate it.
I have no idea what Boronia House used to be. I have no idea of its history, or who owned it, if it was the estate house of some large landholding, if it was a hotel: I know nothing. What I do know is that its current function of being a tea house and a high tea house at that, is an apt function that befits its grandeur.
I like the wrought iron filigree work, I like the columns and their capitals, I like the finials and I like that the tables have clean linen tablecloths and that there are superfluous and abundant flowers. Someone has taken due care and diligence and shown the building the respect and love it deserves. It is a joy to look at.
Naturally if we're talking about a tea house, then at some point the subject of tea seems appropriate. I am convinced that one of the reasons that Britain simply had to go into the world and carve out an empire, through the process of stealing countries with the cunning use of flags, is that Britain is a dreary dreary island. Had the British won the lottery of geography and started out on the Mediterranean Sea, then there would have been no need for any of it. But because Britain was a rainy little tin top island which was only mildly protected from the Atlantic by Ireland, then the impetus to become a seafaring band of ruffians was baked into the very dough of Britishness.
Naturally, after having acquired India with its lovely spices, Britain simply had to make tea time a very British thing and thanks to historical accident, I live in the shadow after the passing of empire and tea time is still a thing.
There are few things in this world that are as good as a lovely cup of tea. America having ceremonially dumped its tea in Boston Harbor, forged itself as a coffee nation and while coffee is the drink of industry, the enlightenment and business, tea is the drink of calm, peace and serenity (so much serenity).
You can have 'nice' cups of coffee and there are coffee snobs who want single origin artisan coffee but only a cup of tea can be described in the way that Mrs Rollo has suggested: 'magical'. I like to say that it's always time for tea time and truth be told, even if it's overly strong builder's tea, I could drink loads of the stuff.
It is only tea that comes with a full set of paraphernalia it is only tea that we name not one but two breaks during the day after - it is Morning Tea and Afternoon Tea. Morning Coffee merely sounds like that thing that people have before they stare at the 156 emails that have arrived since last night.
It seems to me that the most goodest things are often the simplest; there's very little that's more gooder than a nice cup of tea. Sometimes a nice cup of tea can be improved by serving it in fine china, with jam and scones; on a sunny afternoon, in a pleasant tea house.
"It is a mark of insincerity of purpose to spend one's time in looking for the sacred emperor in the low class tea shops."
- The Wallet of Kai Lung, Ernest Bramah Smith (1900)
I question why one would even bother looking for the sacred emperor in the low class tea shops. I question why one would even bother looking for anything other than tea in the low class tea shops. Tea shops are for tea.
A good cup of tea is about the goodest thing I can think of; I can't think of much more gooder.
The grand list can be found here: http://fatmumslim.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/PHOTO-A-DAY-MARCH-16-1024x1024.jpg
This is how to play along: http://fatmumslim.com.au/how-to-play/
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