Tea bar quenches specialty tastes

Since discovering Maccha tea four-years ago, Susanne Gregory has been trying to figure out how to highlight specialty teas in a big way in her Oak Bay Avenue shop. When Village Winery moved out this year from its location next to the vitamin shop, Gregory saw her chance. After knocking down the wall between the two stores, Gregory installed a tea bar, brightly kitted out in a lime and avocado colour scheme.

It's not a tea house or a coffee house. The semi-circular bar is a place to imbibe in what Gregory says is the new health drink -- tea.

"Coffee gives people a sharp burst of energy and then they crash," she says, "but tea is gentle."

With Patricia Hart on board as the tea bar's manager, customers can partake of the green, black and white teas Gregory brings in from Japan, South Africa and China. High on her list is Maccha, a ground green-tea grown in the shade for its chlorophyll properties.

Good Health Vitamins' tea bar is at 2249 Oak Bay Avenue (250-592-2249).

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Plush owner a softy for textiles

When Karen Hosie was 12 her mother taught her how to sew.

"I hated it at first but, once I made my first skirt, I was on my way," Hosie said. After moving to Victoria and then Oak Bay over past two years, the former Toronto resident has returned to her textile roots. Plush Soft Furnishings is an offshoot of the interior design business she runs from her Topp Avenue home. With three seamstresses settled into a light-filled, ground-level workroom, Hosie turns out fabric-based furnishings and accessories such as upholstered headboards, bedskirts, duvet covers, as well as window coverings, shams, and accent pillows. With husband Robert as installer, Hosie says hers is a one-shop stop for those who want to find design, fabrication and installation services in one source.

Plush Soft Furnishings is at 2714 Topp Avenue (250-412-7966).

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Artist with an eye for birds honoured

Fenwick Lansdowne knew his stuff.

"A lot of people can sort of do birds," says Winchester Galleries' Gunter Heinrich. "But he was able to get just the way the wings are moving."

To honour that gift, Winchester is exhibiting a selection of drawings and watercolours from the artist who died earlier this year. The preview for the show, which runs Dec. 7-22, is Saturday, Dec. 6., 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., at Winchester Galleries, 2260 Oak Bay Ave. (250-595-2777).

Karel Roessing and Elizabeth Ely will be on piano and harp for the preview.