Adventures with Michelle, The Tilted Teacup

July 31, 2013 by KTgreen

Several weeks ago one of my dear friends went off on a month long adventure to Asia…so jealous! Before she left we spent an afternoon lunching and visiting as girlfriends do. She’d told me about a new little place to try in downtown Brooksville called The Tilted Teacup. Yes, it’s a teahouse. I love these tiny enclaves of femininity. We actually have more than one in our area, which is fabulous considering that we must have 50 beer n’ wing joints. Since I’ve already been to one of our other ones, which is also lovely, this was new to me and I was looking forward to seeing the differences.

First off, I love the location. I was very happy to see the old house that had been numerous business thru the years I’d live in Brooksville, transformed into something that truly fit the edifice. The Tilted Teacup sits at the corner of Ft. Dade Ave. and Lemon St. just a short walk from the Hernando County Courthouse, in a small southern home with one of the biggest live oak trees ever, in it’s tiny parking lot.

The restaurant is owned by a lovely young couple. Their attention to detail shows in their choice of teas and treats to serve, as well as the personal attention paid to their patrons. We had a lovely selection of tea for our ‘High Tea’ menu as well as a tiered tray filled with freshly made diminutive delights. On that day, I was honestly pretty hungry, and didn’t think that finger sandwiches was going to fill me up – but it did. In fact, the selection was so delicious, that my girlfriend and I talked and drank our tea and I hadn’t taken one photo for the blog! Oops. (Hold still little scone – I’ll get to you soon.)

The décor is so cute – who’d think to make a ‘flower chandelier’. So sweet!

And an all-season Christmas tree in the entry pays homage to Brooksville’s late, Rodgers Christmas House.

You can select one of several, equally beautiful rooms. One room had antique hats all hung in a row, another had a more country feel. There’s tea, tea pots and spoons to purchase as well as some really cute handmade aprons in a gift area.

So if you find yourself in Brooksville and in need of a change of pace, or a place for a girls luncheon, give them a call for a table and reserve your afternoon to decompress in the shade of the old oak tree.

Clearwater Beach

July 30, 2013 by KTgreen

Local Places, Local Faces

You may not consider a drive of 1 hour and 40 minutes as a local destination, but my definition is that if you can get there, spend the day, and get home before nightfall, it’s local. Plus I needed a local post for today and this was the only day last week that our outdoor plans didn’t get rained out!

I’d been planning the Clearwater visit for awhile. Thought that grandson Riley from North Dakota should visit a gulf beach with waves and sugar sand. And we took along my great-nephew William. I probably haven’t been to the Clearwater beach since my kids were teenagers when the beach was incredibly touristy with all those little tee-shirt shops and bumper to bumper traffic. Still scarred from a parking ticket for being 10 minutes late to get back to my car back in the 80s. Have to say I was pleasantly surprised. We got there by 10 am, traffic was tolerable, and I found parking at Pier 60 quite easily.

Clearwater Beach, Local Places, Local Faces — Riley and William are too cool for posing now but I did get this one of them in the waves. Our Florida native is the pale child, Mr. ND has quite the tan! How did that happen?

Headed out about 2:30 and just barely got out of Tampa before the rains started. Smooth driving from there!

Withlacoochee State Trail, Floral City to Istachatta

July 23, 2013 by KTgreen

Local Places, Local Faces

We had a break in the rain and a sunny morning last week so Terry, Maggie and I headed back to the Withlacoochee State Trail. This bicycle ride started in Floral City. We’ve only been in Floral City one other time and thought it was a unique little town. I intend to go back and check out all the little shops—when it’s a bit cooler. We also have not yet been to the Shamrock and it’s one of the restaurants on our “chicken wing” list.

We couldn’t find parking specifically for the trail so just used public parking behind the library. There were a few other vehicles with bike racks already there but we didn’t see anyone else going out on the trail. This was unusual since we usually see at least a half dozen people headed out. We never saw anyone using the trail until we had made our turnaround and were headed back to Floral City.

This was the first section of the trail that we’ve been on that we could not see or hear Hwy-41. What we saw were many huge live oaks, beautiful pasture land, and farm animals. Terry also spotted a peacock along the trail and we are assuming it was an escapee from one of the area ranches. This section was almost completely shaded and had gentle inclines. One of the most pleasant rides we’ve had on the trail.

We hoped to make it to the Istachatta Trailhead but it was a little too far. We did ride about 5 miles and turned around at a placard regarding “The Great Train Wreck of 1956”. Which I found quite interesting–Alan is an engineer on a railroad in ND plus my dad was a conductor when he was a young adult. One of the men that died was W.E. Snyder, the brakeman. That’s my maiden name. Coincidence? Most likely. I did some googling but didn’t get more information other than what was already on the sign on the trail. If anyone has any more info, let me know!

Withlacoochee Trail, Floral City to Istachatta — Placard about the Great Train Wreck of 1956. Four railroad workers were killed when two trains were on the same track and collided. Ironically, if they had used their recently installed radios, they would have known they were on the same track. But they would not use the radios until they received additional pay as radio operators! Bad decision!

We’re now over half way through the 46-mile trail. Our next ride will start at the Istachatta trail head but we probably won’t be getting out again for a few weeks. After all, Riley’s here and riding 10 miles on a bike that doesn’t really fit him in the heat and humidity might not be his idea of fun! But we will be kayaking different rivers, doing some fishing, maybe some scalloping and enjoying a few of Florida’s beaches.