{"id":29508,"date":"2021-06-17T20:42:01","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T00:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29508"},"modified":"2021-06-17T20:49:11","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T00:49:11","slug":"strawberries-tea-a-splash-of-whisky-and-a-side-of-murder-aurora-historical-society-has-full-menu-for-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/strawberries-tea-a-splash-of-whisky-and-a-side-of-murder-aurora-historical-society-has-full-menu-for-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Strawberries, tea, a splash of whisky and a side of murder \u2013 Aurora Historical Society has full menu for summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Summer is just around the corner and the Aurora Historical Society is whipping up a menu that has something for everyone \u2013 from a strawberry tea, to a whiskey tasting, and even a bit of a murder mystery on the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillary House National Historic Site, home to the Aurora Historical Society (AHS), might be gearing up to once again welcome visitors across their Victorian gothic threshold soon, but Society members and residents at large have been keen to stay in touch through virtual programming, including their popular Speaker Series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fun continues this Wednesday, June 23, with \u201cThe Bachelorette New France: Bigamy, Incest, Witchcraft and Murder\u201d hosted by researchers Dawn Kelly and Carol Ufford who have curated fascinating stories on the Filles du Roi and other young women who were encouraged to cross the Atlantic to New France to help populate the colony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This virtual talk, which costs $7.35, will be followed by several local speakers in the months ahead including Aurora Sport Hall of Famer Karen Stemmle with \u201cLife Adventures from Zero to 140km Per Hour\u201d, the Toronto Railway Historical Society with \u201cRails Through Aurora\u201d and, this October, Brian North on recent archeological digs on the site of Aurora United Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe speaker series has really been quite successful virtually,\u201d says AHS President Patricia Wallace. \u201cPivoting to virtual has done just as well and we\u2019re excited about that. It has helped broaden our audience and we have people from out-of-town joining in because they can do it without travelling and that is exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a taste of Victorian fare, however, is what you\u2019re looking for, the Society will host a Strawberry Tea from Home on June 26. With a special tea kit \u2013 including sweet treats from Maple Teahouse and Bake Shop \u2013 ready to pick up from Hillary House from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. A virtual presentation on the history of tea hosted by Lianne Harris will accompany the sit-down from 2 \u2013 3 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll get to take home a nice gift bag of goodies with beautifully-presented food from Maple Teahouse as well as a special gift from our giftshop, which will be a surprise for everybody,\u201d says Ms. Wallace. \u201cEverybody wants to take part, support, and find different ways to lend their support and we\u2019re trying to give them a venue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AHS hoped present health circumstances would have allowed the Strawberry Tea to take place in person, but while the numbers didn\u2019t allow that to happen, they are confident they can again welcome guests to the expansive Hillary House grounds this September for a Victorian Harvest Tea, an event which was wildly successful last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re planning on increasing the capacity of that this year,\u201d says Ms. Wallace, building on last year\u2019s sold-out event. \u201cWe also have a scotch tasting coming up and that is going to sell out very quickly. It\u2019s virtual and we\u2019re working with the Aurora Whisky Society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that wasn\u2019t enough, the AHS is pleased to announce the Hillary House Ball will be returning virtually this year after a hiatus in 2020 due to COVID-19. The Hillary House at Home Ball will take place October 23, with proceeds going to outdoor restoration work at the Yonge Street landmark \u2013 with a specific focus on restoring the gothic revival porch residents and travellers through Aurora have come to know so well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on these and any other programs offered by the Aurora Historical Society, visit aurorahs.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summer is just around the corner and the Aurora Historical Society is whipping up a menu that has something for everyone \u2013 from a strawberry tea, to a whiskey tasting, and even a bit of a murder mystery on the side. Hillary House National Historic Site, home to the Aurora Historical Society (AHS), might be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/2021-06-17-06.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7FW","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 17:51:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}