On one of our first visits, after an hour-long wait, we were seated at a lovely table in the back garden.
I had a lovely table by a window at Sierra Mar, and an attentive pony-tailed waiter who was delighted when I chose a glass of Edna Valley chardonnay from the extensive, award-winning cellar.
It's almost impossible to watch television these days without accidentally learning something about Henry VIII, but The Tudors is a revved-up history lesson: light on dates and heavy on sex, glamour and lovely table settings.
The word is German and has been used since the 20s, but one person's kitsch is another's lovely table lamp – so how can we talk about it without revealing layers of snobbery?
I found tiny references to him in local history projects stored in North Battleford library in Saskatchewan, saying that he retained his lovely table manners, had the best horses in the area and had always "batched it" – lived without a woman.
My teenage daughter is now the one saying, "You're not going out of the house dressed like that, are you?" It's a lovely table of eight, or better yet: a small reality show called Getting That Mom a Gig.
They make lovely table doilies, table clothes, table napkins, pillow cases, curtains, neckerchiefs, and handkerchiefs.
