SEptember 2025 Feisty Women Presentation & Tea

To kick off our Second Year of Feisty Female Teas the Bell is happy to invite you into the magical world of Tasha Tudor’s country garden followed by a very special afternoon tea served in our lower level (Bell Style).

Artist, author, and illustrator, Tasha Tudor is world famous for her many children’s books that transport her readers to another gentler time. That same sense of wonder and delight in her books was central to the creation of her original garden design.

Children’s book author, Elvira Woodruff will be our guide as we virtually tour this most intimate and unique New England garden and discover the gardener who created it.

“Tasha Tudor, was brim full of artistic energy, dogged determination, and the will to live life on her own terms,” Elvira notes. “She created a garden and a life that was uniquely hers.”

‘I haven’t any modesty when it comes to my garden,’ Tasha said. “I’ll boast like mad.’

And boast she should, for like every other artistic endeavor she took up, Tasha Tudor’s garden was a magical thing of beauty. With her graying hair, sun wrinkled face and dirt under her fingernails, she faced her age with grace and gratitude and grew a garden full of delights.

“There is no peace that can’t be found in the present moment." - Tasha Tudor

Limited seating: So order your tickets early so you won’t miss out………$15.00

Author, Elvira Woodruff takes us for a stroll through the magical garden of award-winning children’s book Illustrator, Tasha Tudor, in her rustic Vermont garden – Her garden was a feast for the senses, inspiring her art as well as the unique life she lived.

Following the presentation, an Afternoon Tea (Bell Style) will be served in our Lower Level Limited Seating…Order tickets early so you won’t miss out.

Elvira Woodruff is the author of 24 books for children. She lives with her husband Joe in Martins Creek.

Feisty Females is graciously sponsored by a grant from the County of Northampton

Our Second Year of Feisty Female Teas the Bell is happy to invite you into the magical world of Gertrude Jekyll and her 400 gardens in the UK followed by a very special afternoon tea served in our lower level (Bell Style).

Author, Elvira Woodruff takes us for a stroll through the magical garden of Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932). Gertrude created or gave advice on more than 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and America; her influence on garden design has been pervasive to this day. She spent most of her life in Surrey, England, latterly at Munstead Wood, near Godalming. She ran a garden centre there and bred many new plants. Some of her gardens have been faithfully restored, wholly or partly, and can be visited. Godalming Museum has many of her notebooks and copies of all her garden drawings, (compiled and sorted by members of the Surrey Gardens Trust); the original drawings are in the University of California, Berkeley. Much material about her and the Jekyll family, including copies of her garden designs, is held by the Surrey History Centre, Woking.

.Her own books about gardening are widely read in modern editions; much has been written about her by others. She contributed over 1,000 articles to Country Life, The Garden and other magazines. A complete list of every book and article written by her is in the Books section of this site. A talented painter, photographer, designer and craftswoman, she was much influenced by Arts & Crafts principles.

Following the presentation, an Afternoon Tea (Bell Style) will be served in our Lower Level Limited Seating…Order tickets early so you won’t miss out.

Elvira Woodruff is the author of 24 books for children. She lives with her husband Joe in Martins Creek.

Feisty Females is graciously sponsored by a grant from the County of Northampton

What was the last thing Napoleon asked for on his  Deathbed?  Why a rose of course! 

Join us on Nov. 18 at 2:00 pm for our next installment of Feisty Female Teas in their Gardens as we travel back in time to visit the home and garden of Napoleon’s feisty first Empress, Josephine. We’ll explore how Josephine’s passion for roses and exotics changed the face of Europe’s horticultural landscape.  

She had horrendous taste in men… But a Stupendous passion for plants! 

Our tour will end with a special tea celebrating this feisty French female and her fantastic garden , in the Bell’s Lower Level.

Following the presentation, an Afternoon Tea (Bell Style) will be served in our Lower Level Limited Seating…Order tickets early so you won’t miss out.

Elvira Woodruff is the author of 24 books for children. She lives with her husband Joe in Martins Creek.

Limited seating: order your tickets early so you won’t miss out.

Feisty Females is graciously sponsored by a grant from the County of Northampton