I heart...

I heart...

I love-love-love Olive magazine, it is the most inspiring read for any food lover - although the recipes themselves can sometimes be a bit flat!

You learn to distinguish the faff from the finds recipe wise with food magazines I find! However it is an amazing magazine if you enjoy finding inspiration in food articles or pictures, if you, like I, look through cookbooks for hours but rarely follow the recipe to the letter, Olive mag is for you!

I got the April issue yesterday and it was dreamy... a whole section on Afternoon Tea which is one of my favorite things in the world!! I love the idea of tea cups and dainty eating of dainty things, its a very feminine experience!

I love the politeness and smallness of the food served at Afternoon Tea, and I love the "Englishness" of it! Having always secretely admired the English culture of church fetes and tearooms, it allows the child in me to once again play at being "proper".

Having Afternoon Tea makes me feel like I should be wearing a hat, and I love it! I want to play Cole Porter music and clip my words when I speak. It evokes images of steam covered station platforms, waving hankies and soldiers uniforms, of seamed stockings, pencil skirts and

netted eyes... There is something about images of England in the war torn 40s that are so romantic, so heartbreaking and moving.

Afternoon Tea encapsulates that feeling for me! In its essence its such a female thing, such a girly idea, and I love having tea with my girlfriends but I find it incredibly romantic too - I love the idea of sitting by a huge open window, while rain falls outside on long green lawns, my man reading a newspaper, me reading him... with a dainty white clothed table, pots of tea and an array of fondant coloured cakes and tiny crustless sandwiches to pick from! Nothing sounds nicer...

I absolutely must persuade Bill to bring me to Hunters Hotel, which Ciara tells me does the best Afternoon tea in Ireland! Tiny sandwiches, petit fours, tea... seriously what sounds better than that? If you've never had it, you MUST! Watch 'Brief Encounter' first though so you're in the right mood!

Funny how something so twee and girly can be so romantic to me, but you know what they say - in the most simple flowers lie the strongest perfume! ;-)