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The Gunn Memorial Library and Museum in Washington, Conn., is ringing in the new year with an old-fashioned tea on Jan. 4. The party is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.

The Gunn Memorial Library and Museum in Washington, Conn., is ringing in the new year with an old-fashioned tea on Jan. 4. The party is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.

Photo: The Gunn Memorial Library And Museum / Contributed Photo

The Gunn Memorial Library and Museum in Washington, Conn., is ringing in the new year with an old-fashioned tea on Jan. 4. The party is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.

The Gunn Memorial Library and Museum in Washington, Conn., is ringing in the new year with an old-fashioned tea on Jan. 4. The party is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.

Gunn museum marks new year with old-fashioned tea party

The Gunn Memorial Library and Museum in Washington, Conn., is ringing in the new year with an old-fashioned tea on Saturday, Jan. 4.

During the tea, guests will have the chance to view a new exhibit, Washington, Connecticut An American Story, and socialize with friends.

Attendees are asked to bring their favorite tea cup, and the museum will provide the tea, sandwiches and cookies.

The party is free and open to the public, but registration is requested as space is limited. Please call 860-868-7756 or email curator@gunnhistoricalmuseum to register.

Washington, Connecticut An American Story is an exciting new long-term exhibit about the unique people, places and events that have shaped Washingtons history. The immersive exhibit highlights major turning points spanning 10,000 years, giving visitors a unique perspective of the town as it is today.

The Gunn Museum, 5 Wykeham Road, Washington, Conn. Saturday, Jan. 4, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Snow date Sunday, Jan. 5. 860-868-7586, gunnmuseum.org

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Gunn museum marks new year with old-fashioned tea party - CTPost

LEXINGTON, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) In 1773, just a few days before the Boston Tea Party, the people of Lexington staged their own protest against British taxes.

They got all of the tea in town together and threw it into a bonfire. So, they burnt all of the tea, reenactor Benjamin Beverage said.

A reenactment of the event outside of Buckman Tavern was held in Lexington on Sunday, complete with musket drills and fife playing.

Mark Wendell Tea donates a bunch of tea, which we very kindly then take and toss in a bonfire, Beverage said. Im sure the tea tastes great, but sadly today we didnt get to taste it. We just burnt it.

The reenactment is held every year in Lexington.

Its an interesting event. And when it comes down to it, the Boston Tea Party really is the event that leads to the American Revolution, Beverage said.

WBZ NewsRadio's Suzanne Sausville (@wbzSausville) reports

See the article here:
Lexington Holds Reenactment Of 1773 Tea Burning - KFI AM 640

SALEM, N.H. Taking on an incumbent president from your own party is a tough enough job already, but Joe Walsh starts with an even more basic problem.

Who? wonders John Randlett, a selectman from Plymouth, New Hampshire, a tiny town 45 miles north of the state capital Concord, and an active-enough Republican to have come to a $100-a-ticket social to raise money for state House Republican candidates. I never heard of him.

Even during an appearance on conservative talk radio Walshs own most recent job WGIR host Jack Heath feels compelled to introduce Walsh as not the musician, but the former congressman.

If Walsh feels snubbed, he does not show it and instead spends his half-hour doing what he has mainly been doing for the better part of a year, particularly since he announced his longshot campaign to take the 2020 GOP nomination away from President Donald Trump.

He deserves to be impeached, Walsh says on-air, remarks that are apostasy for listeners who later in the day will hear from right-wing media stars Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Trump tried to cheat in the 2020 election.

Bill from Maine calls in to complain: Youre bad-mouthing our president!

While Heath brought him on, Walshs background as one of the original tea party congressmen may not be enough for entree onto the loudest platform for Trump fandom, Fox News thereby hurting his ability to boost his name recognition among the likeliest GOP voters in New Hampshires Feb. 11 primary. As HuffPost followed him around the state this past week, Walsh said he has been banned from appearing on Fox News programs, where so many Republicans get their information, because he refuses to tone down his criticism of Trump and the network wants to protect the president.

(A Fox News spokesperson denied this in a statement: A simple Google search would show there is zero truth in these claims made by Joe Walsh. A cursory Google search, however, appears to corroborate Walshs assertion, with no television appearances on the network since a contentious Aug. 30 interview on Fox Business in which he goaded host Stuart Varney into claiming that Trump does not lie.)

At the same time, Walsh knows he has a tough climb to win over Democrats and liberal independents, who might otherwise be persuaded to cast ballots in open primaries like New Hampshires, because of his lengthy record of bashing former President Barack Obama, both during Walshs single term in Congress and afterward as an AM radio talk show host in Chicago.

In 2015, when a gunman killed four Marines in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Walsh accused Obama of refusing to call the act Islamic terrorism because he claimed Obama is Muslim. In 2017, he contendedthat Americans had lowered the bar for Obama to a lower standard cuz he was black. Two weeks before the 2016 election, Walsh said he would be voting for Trump on Nov. 8 and added, On November 9th, if Trump loses, Im grabbing my musket.

For months now, Walsh has found himself frequently apologizing for his past incendiary and at times racist remarks. His talk show was on a conservative radio network, and such fodder was what the audience wanted to hear, he says by way of explanation.

I went after Obama hard. Sometimes I went after Obama too hard, he says. I engaged in ugly personal attacks. Im done doing that.

The worst, he says, was calling Obama a Muslim not because theres anything wrong with being Muslim, but because since Obama frequently said he was Christian, Walsh was calling Obama a liar without cause.

All I can do is apologize, he says. I am a reformed outlaw.

With his words and ubiquitous tweets, Walsh has publicly turned a page. When Trump declared the city of Baltimore rat-infested this summer and posted that no human being would want to live there, Walsh called him a racist. And when Trump told four congresswomen two Muslim, one Black and one Latina to go back to their countries, Walsh wrote: Its so ugly. Its so un-American.

The shift, while dramatic, may have left Walsh politically homeless.

I feel like a man without a country, he says. There are a lot of people who will never trust me. And I dont have a base anymore.

S.V. Date/HuffPostThe GOP presidential hopeful and his wife, Helene Walsh, sign campaign posters in New Hampshire.

Tea Partier Gone Rogue

Walsh, who will turn 58 later this month, was a former social worker and a former community college history teacher turned conservative think tank fundraiser in suburban Chicago until Obamas election persuaded him to run for Congress.Being the first tea party candidate in the country to win a congressional primary in 2010 won him some fame. So did getting sued by the other Joe Walsh, the former Eagles guitarist, for using the musicians songs at his campaign events.

Walsh says he was driven by Obamas liberal policies and, particularly, his push for the Affordable Care Act. To this day, Walsh says he believes that most tea party voters similarly opposed the first Black president over issues like the national debt, not because of the color of his skin.

Walshs Capitol Hill career, though, was a short one. Illinois lost two congressional seats in the 2010 Census, and the Democrats who controlled the statehouse made sure that Walshs was one of them when they drew the new map. The swing seat he had won by 0.2 percentage points became the one he lost by 9 points two years later.

Walsh slid into AM talk radio in early 2013, starting with a station in Chicago and eventually becoming nationally syndicated through Salem Radio Network. Continuing to attack Obama as he had in Congress was easy, and in 2016 Walsh became a supporter of Trump because of how the reality TV host appeared to take joy in flouting political correctness.

The former congressman asserts now he didnt love or even like Trump, but wound up backing the man because he was not Hillary Clinton, a decadeslong villain in the world of right-wing politics. Soon enough, though, he says he began seeing troubling signs in the new president and started criticizing those actions while still praising Trump for the efforts he agreed with, such as the 2017 tax cut legislation.

That started changing, he says, when Trump began trade wars, started running up increasingly hefty budget deficits despite a strong economy and cozied up to Russian leader Vladimir Putin and other dictators policies once anathema to the Republican Partys platforms all while lying nearly constantly, about just about everything.

But the epiphany came at the Helsinki summit with Putin in the summer of 2018, when Trump told the world that he believed the Russian strongman over his own intelligence services. When he did that, that was the final straw for me. I went on the radio and said I was never going to support him again. Hes a traitor, Walsh says, adding that even more depressing was watching members of his own party fail to offer a word of criticism. Now the party is not a party. Now the party is purely a personality cult for Donald Trump.

Of course, Walsh is not the only Republican, or even the first, to think that Trump needs to be challenged from within his own party. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who previously ran the Justice Departments Criminal Division under President Ronald Reagan, announced his presidential candidacy in April. Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford also entered the GOP primary race, only to drop out after three months when his worry-about-the-debt-but-not-attack-Trump strategy gained little traction.

Yet in the past year, Walsh has been among the relatively small universe of Republicans eager to attack Trump openly and vociferously on any number of topics, from his willingness to profit off his presidency to his trade wars to his temperament to his treatment of women and people of color.

In terms of pure vitriol, Walshs criticism of Trump rivals that of the most outspoken Democrats. He calls Trump unfit for office, divisive, racist, openly corrupt and, in Walshs view worst of all, a serial liar.

We cant as a people accept a president who lies every time he opens his mouth, Walsh tells C-SPAN during a taping at St. Anselms College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

As a conservative Republican, Id rather have a socialist in the White House than a dictator, he tells WMURs Adam Sexton for a segment on Sextons weekend politics show.

This past week was Walshs sixth trip to New Hampshire since getting into the race in late August, with a return visit planned this coming week. He says he has been to Iowa eight times and has also visited Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, California and Pennsylvania.

Every state I go, 70 to 80% of the Republicans I speak with really all do say a variation of the same thing: Joe, I like some of the things Trumps done, but Im sick and tired of all of his bullshit. Im exhausted. I cant imagine going through four more years of Trump. But, Joe, what am I going to do? The Democrats are socialist. What other alternative do I have? Walsh says. Now I hear that, and I think, well, thats an opportunity for somebody.

S.V. Date/HuffPostWalsh appears on WMURs set in Manchester to tape an appearance promoting his Republican primary campaign against President Donald Trump.

A Tough Sell In The Party Of Trump

But given Trumps strong approval numbers within the Republican Party, its unclear whether Walshs message is traveling beyond a relatively small minority of Republicans and independents.

At the New Hampshire House fundraiser in Bedford this past week, Randlett says he is willing to tolerate the aspects of Trump that even he finds offensive. I dont like a lot of the things he says. But I think hes getting the job done, the Plymouth selectman says. Im going to take the 70 or 80% thats good and live with the rest.

The following night, at a Rockingham County Republican Christmas Party (and ugly sweater contest) in Portsmouth, former New Hampshire House Speaker and current U.S. Senate candidate Bill OBrien says he is not likely to invite Walsh to his local Americans for Tax Reform group. Were not very favorable for someone to be running against the president, OBrien explains.

Lindsay Murphy, who stepped away from a human resources career to raise young children, says that she sees both Walshs and Welds bids as running against the wind and that she will support Trump, despite his flaws. Im a Republican. You have to stick up for your team, she adds.

Walsh says those types of views present him with a daunting challenge but adds that what keeps him going is the knowledge that with Trump, pretty much anything can happen.

The facts on the ground could change again, he tells HuffPost as he steers a rented Infinity SUV along a New Hampshire highway. Twenty Republican senators would give their middle finger to Donald Trump in a heartbeat if the facts warranted it because they dont like him. They want him gone. So John Bolton testifies in January and says heres the deal, heres what really happened. Or Lev Parnas has tapes where Trump is saying, Fuck it, I want dirt on Biden or Im not giving him the aid. Who knows what might come out? So its extremely possible that the Senate could convict this guy, or this guy whos a bully and a coward will just say, Im gone.

In either of those cases, with qualifying deadlines passed, a newly elevated President Mike Pence would not be able to get on primary ballots, Walsh points out, but adds that party leaders would likely change rules at the summer convention to make sure Pence got the nomination.

Playing that scenario out, Walsh says hes not sure hed go along, even though his primary objective of getting Trump out of the White House would have been accomplished. I find it hard to believe that Mike Pence wasnt aware of Trumps abuse of power. So he could be tarnished as well, Walsh says. I may run against Pence if Pence is involved in this.

For now, the strategy is simple: Work hard to persuade enough Iowa Republicans and independents to caucus for him on Feb. 3 and win an unexpectedly large showing to take into the New Hampshire primary. That has to be the story coming out of Iowa, he says. Were going to try to accumulate as many delegates as we can in order to force a contested convention.

Brian Snyder/ReutersWalsh, with his wife Helene at his side, files paperwork to appear on the first-in-the-nation primary ballot in Concord, New Hampshire, on No. 14, 2019.

Can I Ask Who That Is?

At Mary Anns Diner in Salem, Walsh drapes his maroon Patagonia jacket over his chair before approaching a young man wearing a Ralph Lauren shirt and sporting a sticker with the Massachusetts state seal on his laptop. Walsh senses a possible Republican and engages, quickly getting deep into the weeds of his views on the drug war and the justice system.

Back at the table where the candidates wife, Helene, and two campaign aides are seated comes a sharp reminder of his biggest difficulty. The waitress approaches and whispers, Can I ask who that is?

As campaigns go, Walshs still has rough edges. Two diner visits advertised in a news release for Thursday were hastily rescheduled for different locations at the last minute. A third was canceled entirely.

Money is a constant concern, with heavyweight Republican donors unwilling to anger the notoriously vindictive Trump by helping Walsh. They dont want to piss him off, he shrugs.

He also acknowledges that he hasnt yet mastered the art of keeping a conversation with potential supporters brief. He spends a good 20 minutes with the young man with the drug war concerns Paul is his name and returns with a phone number. Success. A possible volunteer.

Back at the table, Walsh and his wife agree to split a pastrami sandwich. Then he gets to work on the waitress, Darlene Paradise, eventually asking her: Donald Trump what are the first words that come to your mind?

He stinks, she says. I dont like him.

Walsh gives her a half hug: I love you! Now whats my name?

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Joe Walsh Calls Himself A 'Reformed Outlaw' As He Trains His Attacks On Trump - HuffPost

Green, leafy bamboo stalks and a simple white house covered in cherry blossoms fill the stage, which is lit softly in blue hues. All of a sudden, a white rabbit runs across the stage, and the theater transforms into Wonderland.

Columbia Blue Glaze Theatre presented Jason Pizzarellos Alice in Wonderland on Dec. 2, 7, and 8 in the Glicker-Milstein Theatre. Directed by Kalina Ko, BC 21, and produced by president Crystal Xie, CC 22, and Sylvia Su, BC 22, CGBT brought a beloved tale to life by incorporating aspects of East Asian culture into the production.

Founded in 2014, Columbia Blue Glaze Theatre is a student-run theater group that mainly focuses on highlighting Chinese culture. CGBT is composed of current students as well as artists from all over New York City.

The groups production of Alice in Wonderland will be the first performance since the fall 2018 production of 99 Women. In an effort to increase the diversity of the group, which consisted of predominantly Chinese students, CGBT did not produce a show last semester. It instead dedicated its time to discussing ways to engage more students on campus and advocate more widely for East Asian culture. The group saw some success in its efforts, but it continues to work toward greater inclusivity.

If the club is run by Chinese people, who produce Chinese shows, which are then watched by a solely Chinese audience, we are not really promoting our culture to anyone else, Xie said. The board generally agreed that something must get changed for the club to thrive.

In this recent performance, Katherine Kiki Lee Gonglewski, CC 23, effortlessly assumed the role of Alice, a character who, like a college student, has to navigate the themes of growing up and uncertainty of life. The play featured Gonglewski and her experience as Alice, maneuvering her way through the whimsical chaos of a speedy rabbit, talking flowers, and unusual identical twins. As Alice came to terms with her topsy-turvy surroundings, Gonglewskis soft vocal tone and gentle, disbelieving facial expressions convey her thoughts and feelings to the audience.

Many moments of the show also provided lighthearted humor that invited the audience to be a part of the story.

In her journey through Wonderland, Alice passes through a chaotic kitchen, where food is thrown together carelessly by the Cook, played by Iris Cai, BC 22, before wandering into a mad tea party and over to Humpty Dumptys spot on a narrow wall. The sassy Humpty Dumpty, also played by Cai, received many hearty laughs as she challenged Alices appearance and knowledge.

You look so exactly like other people, Cai said, insulting Alices 10-year-old ego and know-it-all personality, as the audience erupted in laughter.

Many of the cast members played up to four roles, with the exception of Gonglewskis Alice; the White Rabbit, played by Xifan Wang, GSAPP 21; and Second Alice, played by Vivian Lu, BC 22.

Xingron Chen, a recent graduate of Circle in the Square Theatre School, consistently received applause and giggles for her role as the Dormouse as her character amusingly fell asleep during the mad tea party and during the King and Queen of Hearts trial.

Alex Ke, Business 21, who played the King of Hearts, and Hailun Zhou, a student at The New School, who played the iconic Queen of Hearts, assumed the roles of leaders obsessed with decapitating their servants. Congxu and Zhou also played Daisies during the garden scene, where they swayed like flowers in the breeze before screaming at each other and storming off stage.

Although the set, designed by Bella Tincher, CC 20, was simple, it enhanced the scenes by keeping the audiences focus on the characters interactions. Notable scenes included the mad tea party, where beautiful arrangements of tea time delectables sat on messily-arranged plaid tablecloths, and bright, flower-covered structures filled the scenes in the flower garden.

For this recent show, the directors and producers chose to incorporate aspects of traditional Chinese culture through the characters costumes. Costume designers Lu and Bie Tu Seah, CC 23, fused familiar costumes with East Asian clothing. Characters wore everyday clothing or traditional Chinese linen dresses and suits, adding finishing touches like papier-mch rabbit and squirrel hats for the White Rabbit and Old Squirrel, flower crowns and feather boas for the flowers, and a wide, toothy grin painted on Wenxi Han, CC 22, to resemble the Cheshire Cats smile.

They are the products of designers who have their own takes on East Asian cultures, who decide when and when not to incorporate certain visual elements, Xie said. The team wants the audience to see the beauty in East Asian cultures in the mise-en-scne, and I personally think what we have on this show is quite digestible for those not familiar with these cultures.

Unlike the ending that so many viewers have come to know, Alice doesnt fully find her way out of Wonderland in this adaptation. Rather, she watches her older sister comfort the Second Alice as she wakes up from a rather frightening dream. Alice observes as her sister and Second Alice run off into the wings, and she puzzles over her identity.

If youre Alice, then who am I? she asks.

Deputy editor Katie Levine can be contacted at katie.levine@columbiaspectator.com. Follow Spectator on Twitter @ColumbiaSpec.

Continue reading here:
Who is Alice? Columbia Blue Glaze Theatre provokes thought while promoting East Asian culture in Alice in Wonderland - CU Columbia Spectator

If you have food lovers on your Christmas list this year, whether they live locally or far away, how handy for you that you live in (or near) one of Americas most food-obsessed towns. Portland and environs are filled with good ideas for gifts, several of which we highlight here. Some are edible, some not, but all might suit either as Christmas gifts or hostess gifts for one of those many parties youll be attending.

SILK ROAD SPARKLERSIlluminated Me207-233-4170; illuminatedme.com

Spices are often as beautiful as they are full of flavor. Threads of vibrantly colored saffron, set in resin like an ancient insect suspended in amber, resemble a character from the Chinese alphabet. The tans and browns of cumin seed, when displayed in a necklace, are warming to the eyes. Black sesame, mustard seed, poppy seed, red chili pepper, and even locally sourced seaweed are trapped in time and space, becoming wearable (if no longer edible) art in the hands of jewelry designer Sharon Herrick, who transforms her favorite spices into necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings. (Priced between $40 and $60.)

Like a chef painstakingly plating a course at a fine dining restaurant, Herrick uses tweezers to place the spices exactly where she wants them. Its like painting with spices, she said. Resin has a very short time you can work with it before it completely hardens, so I have to move with intention.

She rubs a bit of mica between her thumb and forefinger and adds it to each piece, like a pinch of sea salt, so it will refract light and illuminate the preserved spice.

Sprinkles the kind that go on cupcakes or birthday cakes are a best seller, and also one of the trickiest materials to handle. (Those things bounce, Herrick said.) But she likes seeing her customers faces light up, whether they are 6 years old or 70, when they spy the tiny, colorful balls in a piece of jewelry.

I dont know if theyre having nostalgia, Herrick said, but I know those colors literally make people squeal.

CHEERSThree of Strong Spirits35B Diamond Street, Portland207-899-4930; threeofstrongspirits.com

Even the name says Lets party! Three of Strong Spirits, a new craft rum distillery in Portland, introduced a spiced rum in November they call Merrymeeting, made by master distiller Graham Hamblett. Dave McConnell, co-owner of the distillery, assured me that Merrymeeting is more than the industry standard vanilla/cinnamon/sugar bomb.

For a spiced rum also its quite dry, almost running toward an amaro as far as the flavor profile, McConnell said.

He wasnt kidding. On a recent chilly late Saturday afternoon, I sampled the rum at the distillery in a straight pour ($10) and in a Mai Pai cocktail ($11). Rather than relying too heavily on vanilla and cinnamon, the rum ($36.99 per bottle) really brings the heat, especially when consumed straight up. Warm flavors of ginger, orange peel and Szechuan peppercorn come through strong. The rum is lightly sweetened with organic raw sugar and beetroot.

It also mixes well. My Mai Pai was tart and citrusy, made with a dash of Falernum and topped with a slice of dried apple and a sprig of mint a perfect, tropical antidote to Maines cold, snowy winters. Another Merrymeeting special offered the rum in a mulled cider ($10). McConnell says its also good in eggnog, and he plans to experiment with it in cranberry sauce.

FRENCH CHOCOLATES (NEED WE SAY MORE?)Chocolats Passion189 Brackett Street, Portland207-536-0496; chocolatspassion.com

Christmas is the time of year many people like to indulge in good chocolate without (too much) guilt. West End chocolatier Catherine Wiersema makes it easy for you to tempt everyone on your gift list, offering boxes of four, nine, 15 and 16 chocolates, shaped in squares and hearts, and five-to-a-box critters, including chocolate frogs, butterflies and bunnies. Wiersema, a native of France, is trained in French chocolate-making techniques and makes regular trips to the Cacao Barry Chocolate Academy in Montreal to hone her skills.

For the holidays this year, Wiersema is making two chocolate yule logs filled with decadence. The smaller log (a couple of ounces) sits in the middle of a holiday platter of 36 chocolates for $68 (a discount of 10 percent over buying the chocolates individually). Choose 72 percent dark chocolate or 41 percent milk chocolate for the shell, and then one of two fillings: citrus nougat or gianduja with hazelnut toffee. (Gianduja is an Italian hazelnut-and-milk-chocolate paste). Select the flavors for the 36 chocolates as well, choosing from ginger caramel, passion vanilla, pistachio raspberry, salted caramel and more.

The larger, 6-ounce Yule Log, filled with gianduja, costs $27 and is sold on its own. Its large enough to slice into individual pieces so fights wont break out over it at the Christmas party.

A 90-piece party tray, with the chocolates presented on a slate, costs $90. It cannot be shipped.

The shipping deadline is Dec. 17. If youre extra busy this season, and dont plan to ship but still need chocolates, Wiersema says you can order your chocolates ahead online and include a note saying youd like to pick them up in person at the shop. Wiersema will refund shipping costs and have the chocolates ready and waiting for you.

SPREAD THE COOKIE LOVEc.love cookie project94 Washington Avenue, Portland[emailprotected]; clovecookieproject.com

Send a little spirit of the season with your food gift this year. The c.love cookie project, which bakes out of the Root Cellars commercial kitchen in Portland, donates 21 percent of its profits to three local organizations that help immigrants: Portland Adult Education, the Root Cellar, and Way of Life Mission. This year, the cookie project, created and run by Katherine Slevin, is offering a $30 holiday box that includes a bakers dozen of hand-decorated (with royal icing and sprinkles) gingerbread, cookies she calls nutmeg dudes (like a snickerdoodle but with nutmeg), winter dope (a milk chocolate chip cookie with figs and pumpkin seeds) and a dark chocolate brownie with a mint ganache swirl. The box comes with a glittery, hand-embossed tag. Your friends will think you worked all day on it.

The last day for shipping before Christmas is Dec. 22. The last day for free pick-up is Dec. 23. Slevin will also deliver your cookies for a small fee.

The best/easiest way to order is on the website, Slevin says. But if youd like to see (or sample) her cookies before you buy a whole box, Slevin will be at a few local holiday pop-ups: 5th Annual Holiday Bike Build, 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 12 at Oxbow Brewing, 49 Washington Avenue, Portland; Annual Holiday Sale, 4 to 8 p.m. Dec. 13 at Running with Scissors Art Studio, 250 Anderson Street, Portland; Makers Market at The Point, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 15 at Brick South, Thompsons Point, Portland.

WARD OFF THE WINTER CHILL

Nellies Tea5 Industry Road, Suite 1A, South Portland207-761-8041; nelliestea.com

Dobr Tea89 Exchange Street, Portland207-210-6566; dobrateame.com

Bar Harbor Tea Co.150 Main Street, Bar Harbor207-288-8322; barharbortea.com

Homegrown Herb and Tea195 Congress Street, Portland207-774-3484; homegrownherbandtea.com

Whenever theres someone on my list who is hard to buy for they have everything they need, for example, or the things they want are not on my budget I like giving the gift of tea, especially here in Maine. You can substitute coffee here, but Ive found that seriouscoffee drinkers can be picky about what they let pass their lips. Tea is safer. Most people like to try different kinds, and no matter what flavor or blend it is, it will keep you warm.

Lets start with one of my favorites, which isnt really a tea at all. My mother loves tea, so one Christmas I gave her caffeine-free Wild Maine Blueberry loose fruit tea from Bar Harbor Tea Co. ($7.95 per pound) The company also makes blueberry green tea and blueberry black tea, but there is something special about the fruit tea, which also includes elderberries, currants, hibiscus and rosehips. The first sip transports you to summertime in Maine. Its like drinking liquid blueberries. I fell in love with it myself, and the next time I visited my mother, she said my niece had gotten hooked on it, too. (So now Im the blueberry tea trafficker, regularly shipping a new supply south.) It also tastes great in the summer over ice.

Recently, for a friends birthday, I wrapped up six sampler packs of loose tea from Nellies in South Portland a black tea, a green tea and so on. Most packs (3 for $13) hold an ounce of tea, and an ounce makes 10 to 12 cups, according to Nellies owner Marianne Russo. We like to let people taste teas, if we can, before they buy them, she said. If you want to upgrade your gift, Nellies offers a wooden tea chest filled with tins of tea. You can choose the tea yourself (each box contains 9 to 12 ounces) or buy a pre-filled chest, starting at $55.

Another option at Nellies is to buy a gift card good for a tea party at the shop so you and your friends can pretend youre the Duchess of Cambridge and the Duchess of Sussex enjoying a spot of tea while the boys are out playing polo. The store offers two different services: Tiered afternoon tea includes scones, savories (sandwiches, tartlets, etc.) and several pastries and desserts along with a bottomless cup of tea, of course ($23 per person). Luncheon tea service includes scones, soup or salad, dessert and bottomless tea ($18 per person). Russo also offers tea classes, which cover the history of tea, the basic types of tea, how tea is grown and processed and how to taste tea like a professional ($20 per person).

Dobr Tea also offers gift certificates for its cozy, eclectic tea room in downtown Portland, or you can buy and ship a wide variety of teas directly from its website.

At Homegrown Herb and Tea which looks like a neighborhood bar with mugs and teacups find specially blended teas designed to calm you, stimulate you, knock out that cold, melt away that stress, or balance your dosha. Many of the shops regular teas start around $7 per 2 ounces of loose tea; specialty blends typically start at $12 to 14 for 2 ounces. The owner even has a line of teas for moms and kids, with names like Mama-to-Be-Tea, The Milky Way (to stimulate production of breast milk) and The Tooth Fairy (to ease kids tooth and gum pain).

TAKE A TOUR

Maine Foodie Tours207-233-7485; mainefoodietours.com

Maine Food for Thought Tours207-619-2075; mainefoodforthought.com

Wine Wise Tours207-619-4630; winewiseevents.com

Maine Brew Bus Tours79 Commercial Street, Portland (Old Port Spirits)207-200-9111; themainebrewbus.com

Sure summer and fall are the obvious seasons for walking tours, but some companies run such tours year-round for people who dont mind negotiating a little cold and snow. Maine Foodie Tours, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, runs its Old Port Culinary Walking Tour ($75.95 per person) all winter, for example, along with an Old Port Happy Hour Tour ($74.95) and a newer tour that covers restaurants, bakeries and other hot spots Bon Apptit magazine mentioned when it named Portland its 2018 Restaurant City of the Year. If the person on your gift list doesnt require immediate gratification, try the Lunchtime Lobster Crawl (May-October) or, for pet owners, the $39 Doggy & Me tour (June-October) where dogs get their own treats because they are such good booooys. Or good guuurls. Gift certificates are available online.

Maine Food for Thoughts Land, Sea to Fork Tour takes customers on a $79 three-hour walking tour of the Old Port, stopping at several restaurants along the way for sampling. What makes this tour different is its not just about how much you can stuff in your face; its educational, teaching guests about Maines food system and how food gets from the land and sea to the dinner table. Gift certificates are available online.

If the person on your Christmas list is interested in wine, then try Wine Wises wine and food walks, which also run throughout the winter. Walks focus on a style of wine (pinot noir, for example, or cabernet sauvignon) and wine regions such as Italy, Spain or the Loire Valley. The company, owned by sommelier Erica Archer, also offers wine and oyster walks and bourbon and cocktail walks. If youre buying a tour for a summer guest, consider getting them on board one of Wine Wises wine sails. The windjammer cruises generally run June through October. The walking tours start at $65; the sails start at $79, but most cost $85 and up. Gift certificates available online.

But if beer is your gift getters jam, the Maine Brew Bus offers a mug-full of tours that stop at breweries in Portland and other towns in southern Maine. Tours typically visit three to five breweries or distilleries and run three to five hours. In addition to straight drinking tours, such as Thirsty Thursday or Beerunch, the Maine Brew Bus offers combination tours that blend activities such as curling or bird watching with beer drinking. Most tours start at $70 per person. Gift certificates available online.

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Delight the food lovers on your list with these gift ideas that feed both body and soul - Press Herald