Tea with a bee!

Years ago, in my early effort to try every tea gadget known to man, I bought what was basically a brown plastic stick you used to spear a parchment teabag filled with your own loose leaf tea. The stick was then placed across your teacup to hold your teabag in place while it steeped. Last week, I came across a much more elegant version of that concept made by Vineyard Gardens.

"Jewelry for the table," they call it. Don't you love that? This Botanica Tea Set is made of tarnish resistant pewter, and I chose the bee design partly because I think the bee's wings look like antique marcasite.

I'll have to be on the lookout for other items in this line, because they also make tea scoops, teaspoons and other pieces. Again I say, one of the loveliest things about teatime is the joy of using (and collecting) such pretty accoutrements!