Chilled tea and fancy finger foods, all prepared as summer treats for the ladies, will be served at &uot;A Summer Tea for Women,&uot; 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Morris Gallery.

The gallery, upstairs at 511 Main St., will co-host the event with TheTwiggery.com, a Natchez-based Internet company specializing in gifts, dcor and tea-party-themed merchandise. Owner Michelle Leising will bring some items from the gourmet foods she sells on the Web.

Further, Becky Morris, who owns the gallery with her husband, Jeff, will introduce guests at the tea to artist Sherri Crabtree, whose work now hangs at the gallery.

Morris has waited for just the right mix to put together her idea for the tea. With Leising and Crabtree, all the pieces fit.

Both Leising and Crabtree and their husbands are new to Natchez and have stories similar to the Morrises, who moved to Natchez two years ago after falling in love with it on a brief stopover.

Leising came in October with her husband, Wayne, a physical therapist at Promise Specialty Hospital in Ferriday, La. Both are from small towns in Arkansas. &uot;He interviewed in Ferriday, and we really fell in love with Natchez,&uot; she said. &uot;It’s been a good fit for us.&uot;

Crabtree and her husband came to Natchez as they began looking for a place to settle in the South, somewhere near Dallas, where family members live. &uot;We used to live in Dallas and then moved to Vermont,&uot; she said. &uot;We fell in love with Natchez. People are so open and friendly.&uot;

Leising

began her company as a way to prepare for the future, to give her flexibility as a wife and, in time, a mother, she said. She had worked for a high-end gift and gourmet company and knew well many of the products she sells.

&uot;I know these products inside and out. It was just natural for me,&uot; she said. The products include bath and body products, jewelry, ornaments, soaps, party supplies and many other specialties, available for browsing at www.thetwiggery.com.

Crabtree, whose watercolors will be on display, began as a fashion illustrator. In the early 1990s, she began to paint, selling her works to friends and then in galleries.

&uot;My work really took off when we moved to Vermont and showed in the galleries there,&uot; she said. Some of her work continues to be shown in Vermont galleries.

A native of Kansas City, Mo., she comes from a family of artists. &uot;My mother was an artist, and my brother is an artist in Seattle,&uot; she said.

In addition to an assortment of chilled tea, including blueberry and peach apricot, the menu at &uot;A Summer Tea for Women&uot; will include finger sandwiches, such as cucumber cream and &uot;festy&uot; pimiento cheese, and assorted fancies such as peppermint brownies and butter almond crescents.