#Senegalese Feast - #SaturdaySnapshot

Have I mentioned that lunch at local restaurants is part of the fun of hiking and walking with the senior center group? Seattle's Columbia City neighborhood features a wealth of opportunities to try different cuisines. After a recent walk around the perimeter of Seward Park, we stopped at a Senegalese restaurant for our noon meal. Delicious! For once, I remembered to take pictures before digging in.
[Click on photos for a closer look.]

Seating in this tiny restaurant is limited. The space
was barely wider than the entrance door!
I doubt if more than a dozen people could eat here
at one time.

So hard to choose between all these exotic dishes...
especially since this was my first time to taste Senegalese food.

Lamb Didi served over couscous, with a steaming cup of kinkeliba tea.

Senegalese artwork covered the walls.

                                 

Could you spot Senegal on a map? About as far from Seattle as a person could get!

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 

To join in or to view photos from around the world: 

Post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on West Metro Mommy Read's website (link: HERE) Photos can be old or new and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

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Christmas Tea - #SaturdaySnapshot

Christmas tea at Secret Garden Tea Room and Gift Shop in Sumner, Washington, is a special occasion. 

The tea room is housed in this Victorian mansion (Queen Anne and Italianate architecture). Although it's open for lunch all year, the Christmas tea is an extra-special time to eat there because of the beautiful decorations and special treats. The restaurant closes down for about a week in early November to decorate for Christmas. To secure a table, reservations must be made early.

Here are a few pictures from a recent lunch. Fancy, fun, and delicious!

We all wore pearls for the occasion, but my
granddaughter was the fanciest. She's seriously pondering
her choices -- pink lemonade or tea?

Delicious soup, topped with a star-shaped crouton.
In addition to our choice of tea, we enjoyed sparkling apple cider.
The fancy Christmas china added to the experience.

Raspberry sorbet between courses.

A feast! In addition to this delicious selection, each of us
received a pot of tea (I chose a spicy Christmas blend), along
with a basket of scones, still hot from the oven.

Here's a close-up of the delicious (and beautiful) desserts.

2018

Victorian

Christmas Tea

Pot of Tea

Toasting Glass of Sparkling Cider*

Cup of White Velvet Soup

With Parmesan and Herb Crouton

Sorbet

Scones with Cream, Jam and Lemon Curd

Tiered rack with Tea Sandwiches

Savories and Fresh Fruit

Petite Tea Pastries and Sweets

Commemorative Photo

Hot Towel Service

I've posted about the Secret Garden Tea Room before -- HERE. If you have occasion to be in the area of Sumner, Washington, I recommend a visit. But be sure to call for a reservation.
Here's the link to their website: Secret Garden

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 

To join in or to view photos from around the world: 

Post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on West Metro Mommy Read's website (link: HERE) Photos can be old or new and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

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Joy That Long Endures - #TeaserTuesday and First Chapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

     If you like historical fiction set in the Old West, you'll enjoy Joy That Long Endures as much as I did. Author Alethea Williams tells the tale of men and women working to succeed in Wyoming Territory in the days after completion of the Great Transcontinental Railroad. Although hordes of men and women headed west in search of gold, the people who were most successful were those who provided services to the fortune seekers. This book tells the story of Devin Cavanaugh, a former ironworker who now hauls freight; Dulcinetta Jackson, who owns a saloon; and other characters with ambition and drive.
     This book stands alone; however, it is the second volume in Williams's Irish Blessings series. I blogged about the first book (Walls for the Wind) HERE.
I have also enjoyed and blogged about Alethea Williams's other books: 
Náápiikoan Winter
Willow Vale

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of Joy That Long Endures in exchange for an honest review. The author also included a dictionary with the book, defining the colorful slang of the times.

Beginning: 
     HAAWWWW, HAAAWWWW!
     Well might the mule sound amused, Devin Cavanaugh thought, as he pondered the present state of his life while hoisting another bag atop the pile in the wagon. It took only a glance for the man to resolve anew that this Wyoming Territory was a rough, raw place. The harsh landscape proved hospitable to equally raw weather: the wind had finally let up after an earlier blow so ferocious that loose dirt spiraled in a brown cloud two miles high. Now, with a sudden streak of lightning and vicious crack of thunder, rain cascaded in blinding sheets, turning the normally mindless job of loading the wagons into a wet, miserable business indeed. And to top off the whole soggy mess, there was Caleb Wilson and his fit of temper, accompanied by a veritable geyser of raw language. Wilson's tantrum was coarse enough that Devin almost expected clouds of steam to emanate from the man's mouth along with the steady flow of heated cussing aimed at one of the lead mules.
     "Ya bacon-faced baggage, I'll strip the hide from yer jingle-brained gawdamned bones! Hold still, ya stinkin' Tom turd jilt! By gawd, I'll whip the skin clean off from yer scrawny fundament once I get ya fully hitched, ya useless scraggy whorepipe!"

Teaser (from Page 96):
     Devin said, "I was a big city guttersnipe. My parents died within a few years of arriving in this country - at least I know my mam is dead and I think my da is. He just never came home one night, and Mam died a year or so after that."

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 170 Pages (trade paperback) plus a reader's group guide.
Amazon Link: Joy That Long Endures
Author Blog: Alethea Williams - Western Historicals

Synopsis:
Joy that Long Endures is the second of the Irish Blessings series of historical novels that began in Cheyenne with Walls for the Wind. The series tells the stories of Irish immigrants set along the tracks of the new transcontinental railroad in Wyoming Territory. A former iron man for the Union Pacific, Devin Cavanaugh labors day after day to transport loads from the little railroad town of Bryan 100 miles over dirt trails to South Pass City. He wants only one seemingly unattainable thing: to be his own man. Dulcinetta Jackson, taught from childhood how to profit from the dreams of desperate men, wants the one thing denied her by her life of fabulous wealth: the place bestowed on those accepted in respectable society. What happens when very different people with different ambitions team up to gamble on achieving their dreams? 

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by I'd Rather Be At The Beach. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at I'd Rather Be At The Beach

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

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#Gingerbread Houses - #SaturdaySnapshot

In the spirit of Christmas, the Auburn (Washington) Community Event Center is hosting a gingerbread house competition. I've pasted photos of the entries below. Which one would you vote for?

(Click on photos for a closer look.)

I couldn't resist including this gingerbread house that's a replica of the Banff Springs Hotel (now the Fairmont Banff Springs), Alberta, Canada. This is an old photo. We skied near Banff at Christmastime, many, many years ago.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 

To join in or to view photos from around the world: 

Post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky on West Metro Mommy Read's website (link: HERE) Photos can be old or new and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online.

West Metro Mommy Reads