Tea and Books

Last Friday, we took seven of the nieces plus Jack to tea.


We had our tea at Gypsy's Tea Room in Westminster. IMHO, it is one of the nicer tea room experiences in the Baltimore area if you have a chance to go there one day.


We started this tradition last year and it has turned out to be a New Year's holiday favorite.


If you're wondering why all the kids are wearing old millinery hats, it's because I had taken them last year for fun and now they really look forward to them.


They would all like to wear the tophat but it's the only "boy" hat I have.


I need to keep my eye open for a bowler that's not too expensive...


Even the lady serving us got in on the action...


Remember I mentioned I was taking an online photography class from Karen Russell? Well, I haven't had too much time to "study" with the busy-ness of the holidays so, needless to say, I'm a few weeks behind. That's the story of my life, in a nutshell...three weeks behind.


My father had given me this new lens for my camera for Christmas. This lens is supposed to be ideal for shooting in low light situations which often happens in our everyday life.


I was trying the lens for the first time PLUS I was using the manual settings on my camera for the first time. That means, I turned off all those auto functions and tried really hard to understand the relationship of all of the focus, aperture, ISO and shutter speed settings. I set my camera to be more sensitive to light. I tried to change the aperture as the situation dictated but it was definitely hit or miss. I had lots of overexposed, fuzzy and/or grainy pics.


Phew! It's a challenge but it's very exciting at the same time. There's a whole new world of creativity out there in photography that I'm just beginning to see. It's like I'm peeking over the fence in my backyard and I'm seeing amazing worlds to discover. But right now, I'm having trouble getting myself over that fence.


These pics are my first attempt. Of course, I'm showing you the best and not necessarily the 100 shots that have gotten deleted.


Last night we had a great book exchange. Sorry for no pics but I was the hostess and I sometimes forget. Here are some of the books that were exchanged, each with a note as to why the giver chose that book...

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Goodwin; Loving Frank by Nancy Horan; Shelter Me by Juliette Fay; Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freeman; Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen; The Shack by William P. Young; and The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney.

Perhaps you have read a few?