THE HAPPY TART IN FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3RD, 2026

Last week our son treated us to a favorite restaurant of his and our daughter-in-law. They had visited the previous week. Gregg was over the bad cold and cough he had, and was eager to get out, as was I. We found The Happy Tart a very unassuming and very pleasant place, with excellent food. They ordered at the counter and they were brought to the table not so long afterwards.

I had my eye on this framed photo on the wall, overlooking a canal in Amsterdam. Totally black and white except for the bicycle which was red. You can’t tell from this photo but that red of the bicycle really popped. Come to think of it, so did the color of the wall.

The menu photo also shows part of the ceiling, which interested me. I was having difficulty taking a photo later but son obliged…

and took this for me. Thanks son! 

It is the first time I have been in a 100% gluten-free bakery. I didn’t know beforehand and I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was surprised at how delicious the pastry was on the quiche, and the same for Gregg’s chicken pot pie (top left). The crispy potatoes were delicious too. Also, the desserts later. On the right is my Quiche Lorraine and below is our son's Quiche Florentine, all individual sizes. Not shown is a small takeaway canister with a veggie salad.

Our desserts were a slice of opera cake for me, so delicious and chocolate-y. Son’s heart-shaped one was a New York cheesecake concoction and Gregg’s was a chocolate eclair, not shown. He and I took ours home which we enjoyed that evening.

More goodies below…

If you ever find yourself in the area I can highly recommend the place. It is on a busy road with on street parking, but there were also a couple of parking lots nearby, so son told me. He dropped us off and parked around the corner. He picked us up later after getting the car again. Each side of the street is filled with interesting little shops on the first floor. The Happy Tart is located on the ground floor of the Pearson Square apartments. The rest of the photos were taken outside or a couple of doors away.

These were taken in front of another shop.

I can see us going here again. It was a fun place and we had a very enjoyable lunch with our son. Here is a link to their menu if you would like to take a look here. 

Thanks for visiting and 

I hope you have a great day.

AND THE ANSWER IS...

 A Dubai Chocolate Croissant from our favorite drop-in-for-a-coffee-and-a-pastry place. You can see the tiny piece of edible gold leaf that I cropped for yesterday's post.

I'll be the first to say that it looks a little strange, which was the reaction I had when son first recommended it to me. He and I have very similar tastes and he said I would love it. He knows me well.

I have shared the cafe before and this was from April 21st. We have been trying to cut back on sugary treats, but this was the day we were going out for lunch and we found the restaurant had closed down. The Chateau de Chantilly Cafe was just up the road, so the siren song called. No salads today for us. Well, later for dinner but not for brunch.

As for the Dubai Chocolate Croissant, I found this description online. "...the cafe is famous for its Dubai Chocolate Croissant, which features a glaze of dark chocolate mixed with crushed pistachio nuts, and a coating of crunchy knafeh/kataifi (shredded phyllo dough). The filling is a decadent, creamy and nutty filling composed of pistachio paste or cream, Nutella and often tahini. The use of the edible 24K gold leaf is specifically on the croissant when they can vary by batch or seasonal presentation."

This is Gregg’s order, the Creme Brulee Donut. He usually gets a simple Danish but they had sold out of those. He thinks this will be a regular order from now on. For a drink he has a Coca Cola. 

I get a vanilla latte with mine.

They have savory items too. I was curious about this one. I usually like dark breads so may try it sometime. It is called a Black Garden Cheese Bun.

We were lucky to get a seat in our favorite spot. The 'cards' were behind us. 

It took me a while to realize what they were holding in their hands.

What we all need is love, love...

I've seen young people, students maybe, stretched out on the top wooden platform, and others sitting on the 'steps', usually with their laptops, and a drink of some kind, along with their pastries.

We are going to try and make this a once a month stop. We'll see! It is such a great place to hang out for a while.

There is a video on YouTube at this link. Unfortunately it doesn't show how my favorite is made but there are a lot of other delectable delights. 

Thanks for joining in with my guessing game. I very much appreciated you taking part.

Happy First Day of May 

and thanks for stopping by.

CONTINUING OUR VISIT TO CHATEAU DE CHANTILLY CAFE

You can find their website here. 

I thought I would share more goodies. I also was surprised to read a few negative reviews, which seemed strange. Son and D-in-L have gone there several times now and never had a problem. They have always given it glowing reports, and encouraged us to go as we were looking for something a little different. We felt the same way when we visited on this occasion and that one time last year. It is a place we will look forward to going to again sometime, and more often. Our son and daughter-in-law say they never pay attention to bad reviews, and prefer to make up their own mind. We are the same way and in fact don’t usually do so. Not sure why I did this time, except that I was trying to pinpoint the location and something popped up.

On the right of the above photo is a center storage unit where we found our fried croissant.

It has been a long time since we tried anything like these. We tend to keep away from bakeries for the most part. When we visited last year, Gregg was hoping for a sandwich and didn't realize at first all they sold were cakes and pastries. But after trying the one brought for us on our recent evening get together, he was seriously wanting another. Here are the photos. Not much else to talk about having said a lot yesterday.

and cakes.

I don't know the actual name of this pretty cake but those are slices of mango on the outside.

Black Forest Cake

That’s all for now until the next time we go. 

 

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!

AROUND AND ABOUT FROM 3-3-25 TO 3-9-25

This is our weather forecast for this week, from Monday 3-10-25 to 3-17-25

Hello Family and Friends, thank you once again for your encouragement. Here Is this past week’s daily journal. 

Monday, March 3rd, 2025: father and son were off out for the day. I enjoyed my usual pottering. Not much went on here but Gregg returned with a gift from one of the bookstores they visited. He always says books find you, you don't find them. He saw this one on a display table and picked it up immediately, looked through it and knew I would love it. He was right. It's a new one by Amy Tan and all the art is her own.

Tuesday, March 4th, 2025: 

We ran an errand today, I just went along for the ride and stayed in the car while Gregg went into the dry cleaners. I saw the leprechaun and unicorn again on our way home. This time there was an Irish flag.

Not long now before St. Patrick's Day but in advance I'll wish you: 

"Lá fhéile Pádraig Sona Dhuit" in Irish. 

According to Google it actually translates directly to "Happy Day of the Festival of Patrick to you".

• "Lá Fhéile Pádraig": Means "St Patrick's Day".
• "Sona": Means "happy".
• "Duit": Means "to you". 

This shows its pronunciation:

With it being Shrove Tuesday I made pancakes this evening. It was a tradition in my family when I was growing up, and is still tradition in the UK I'm thinking, to make them once a year (Brit friends please let me know if this is still going on). Mum always made it a lot of fun. She would toss the pancakes up in the air to flip them back into the pan on the other side, letting us have a try. Quite a few landed on the floor and nothing but laughter and giggles, and lots of happy times.

When we first met, Gregg told me he was surprised that pancakes were only made once a year, which he had found on the Royal Navy ship he was stationed with for two years. When we were first married and he asked if I could make him pancakes, I remember being very surprised that pancakes were made for breakfast, and often. It certainly wasn't Shrove Tuesday. 

I still make them the way my mother used to, something between an American pancake and a crepe, but more like a crepe, which fortunately he loved and still loves. We always served ours sprinkled with lemon juice and sugar over the top, and intended to make them that way today. At the last minute we found we had used all our lemons, and I didn't want Gregg to go out just for those. Maple syrup it was! I added blueberries on mine. 

Wednesday, March 5th, 2025: when we saw them last Sunday, our son and daughter-in-law brought pastries from a place called Chateau de Chantilly Cafe. Gregg enjoyed his very much - a fried croissant with a cream filling - and suggested we go over there this morning for breakfast. We are also checking places out when our overseas company visit us.  They will be arriving a little over a month from now. 

This is actually our second visit to the cafe, our first was last year. Visually, and I thought it a bit strange, as I looked at all the variety of delicious delights they offered, I found myself a bit overwhelmed. 

I couldn't decide on anything. I ended up getting what Gregg had come here for, a fried croissant with a cream filling. It was outstanding. Gregg also purchased a coca-cola and ordered a latte for me, except that he accidentally ordered me two. 

I was so annoyed!

And yes I am joking. My unexpected café au lait pour deux? Lovely, and so was that fried croissant. I was wired for the rest of the day. That silly face was after my dear other half asked me if I enjoyed the extra cup of coffee and that was my response. They are not small cups!

A big thank you to him for such a nice treat with my extra surprise, and the nice drive to get out here.

I would describe this place as shabby/chic. I am comfortable wearing a sweater and jeans. It is in an old building with tall ceilings. When son and daughter-in-law were there on the weekend it was packed out and they were lucky to get a table. We had no problem mid-week, and we always go on an off hour when people have gone back to work.  There is an upstairs for the overflow. We managed to get a parking spot right out front, so I left my cane in the car and used Gregg’s arm. They are open every day from 7.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m.

On the way home we had a good old Virginia downpour. I took this photo between the window wipers going at full speed. I have quite a few which I deleted before this one.

We had a FaceTime with my brother-in-law in Germany, another nice long chat. I feel blessed that we have such a close friendship with him after all these years, and with such distance between us too. I am grateful to this technology that allows us to keep in touch, almost like we are all in the same room.  

Thursday, March 6th, 2024: father and son were out again with my blessing. Gregg left the house around 2:00 a.m. I did nothing special and pottered! He knows I enjoy my quiet time. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with them anyway. They like to gadabout all over the place and I would slow them down to a crawl. My time went quickly and when hubs got home late evening, he caught me up on his day and I told him mine. He won! I can’t remember everything I did now, I just know the day went quickly.  

Friday, March 7th, 2025: I woke up to the wind howling outside. It was a little after 1:00 a.m. I could hear the sound of the tree branches whipping into a frenzy. It took me forever to get back to sleep. I could see the light of dawn coming through the shutters before going back to sleep.

The first thing I did this morning was look out on the deck. The only thing I could see amiss, was a small branch from the fir tree. When we first moved here, that fir tree was tiny and remained that way for years. I was told the roots hit the water table and from there on it grew and it grew, and it grew. It is way above the house, and we are going to have to do something about it soon, but unlike our other trees that had to be cut down, it looks very healthy. Someone quoted us $1,200 and because of priorities, don't want to do that right now as we have other things to take care of. It is a healthy-looking tree, and this price quoted was just for pruning. This seems to be the going rate and they certainly are very skilled. When the last man cut down the tree, he was like a lumberjack, shimmying up and down like it was no effort at all.

We picked up an item of clothing from the dry cleaners and that was about it for my outdoor adventure today. There was even more traffic around today.

Look what we saw on the way home? I think the leprechaun and his steed were a wee bit tipsy, or perhaps competing in a rodeo?

The more logical explanation is that with the wind last night, they were deflated.  I saw them flattened on the ground earlier with a couple of bicycles on top acting as weights. I think it was in the process of being inflated again.

Saturday, March 8th, 2025: I took one of my books down off the shelf and picked out a walrus to sketch. This book is not only educational, it has the most wonderful artwork inside, just like the new book Gregg gave me.

This is the one I chose. I remember seeing them once and they are magnificent marine animals. You can read about them at this link.

Here's my scribble sketch.

Nothing else of note today. We had a very quiet day, very relaxing.  

Sunday, March 9th, 2025: son just left at 12:30 p.m. He usually arrives between 8.30 and 9.00 with my coffee in hand and also a muffin. I look forward to his weekly visits. He and his dad will be getting together on Tuesday again. It's becoming a regular thing. 

I have a doctor's appointment coming up next week to see what's going on with this knee, as there are no marathons in my future until I get it sorted out. Not that there were any marathons in my past either, but it would be lovely to be able to get out on a good walk around my favorite places. I am very lucky, I have Green Spring Gardens as it's a short trip to where we park the car and is an easy, flat area.

It feels good to look outside and see the sun shining. 

I think I am going to end this week's around and about here. If something exciting happens I will add it before I publish. I have a feeling it's going to be all quiet, so at 5.13 p.m. I'll say bye-bye for now and until next time...

thanks so much for continuing to read through these things, always appreciated.