Tea of the Day

Warmer weather is on it's way.
I just know it is.
We are beginning to enjoy ice tea of the day.
Do you enjoy a tea of the day too?
Now if you don't know what this is, let me explain.
In the morning we make a pot of hot tea.
If there is anything left in the pot it goes into a container in the refrigerator.
After a few days there could be quite a variety of teas in the container.
This becomes our "tea of the day" for ice tea.
So far we haven't gone wrong and we continue to enjoy our tea of the day over ice.

Poetry Month and Lilacs

 April is Poetry Month.

Ethel Romig Fuller was Oregon Poet Laureate from 1957-1965.
Not long ago I found a copy of her book, Kitchen Sonnets.
As part of celebrating Poetry Month I wanted to share one of her poems.

No April Words

There are no words for saying

How wistful is the push

Of April through the budding

Of a lilac bush.

There are no notes for making

A little elfin air

Of new leaves on a willow;

No phrases to compare

With tapering blue hyacinths;

The first white butterfly;

Of plum trees misted sudden

Silver on the sky.....

One may only listen-

Hand at throat-to rapture

More lyrically lovely

Than any song may capture.

Pink, Pink

What was your favorite color as a child?
When I was growing up it seemed like all the girl's liked pink.
Having a slightly rebellious streak I refused to like pink.
There was a saying, "pink, pink, you stink".
Did children say that when you were young, or was that just my generation?
The color pink has very slowly been growing on me.
Reading other blogs and seeing pink, I have learned to love it.
I especially love it in the garden, even placing the pink flamingo there.
Do you share your life with the color pink?
Do you love it?

Somebody Come and Play

Somebody come and play
Somebody come and play today
Somebody come and smile the smiles
And sing the songs
It won't take long
Somebody come and play today

Somebody come and play
Somebody come and play my way
Somebody come and rhyme the rhymes
And laugh the laughs
It won't take time
Somebody come and play today

Somebody come with me and see the pleasure in the wind
Somebody see the time is getting late to begin

Somebody come and play
Somebody come and play today
Somebody come and be my friend
And watch the sun 'till it rains again
Somebody come and play today

(Sesame Street lyrics) 

Strong Women - Jane Goodall

Today's Strong Woman is Jane Goodall.

With Earth Day last week, I felt Jane Goodall was the perfect woman to share this week.

A woman that shares her passion each day of the year for protecting the lives of primates.

Her remarkable discoveries include the use of tools by primates. It was thought that only humans are capable of using tools. This discovery convinced several scientists to reconsider their definition of being human.

She compared the effects of bereavement on humans and primates and how we can learn the coping techniques by observing primates.

She is best known for her study of chimpanzee social and family life.

^{For more information on Jane Goodall visit the following website:}

http://www.janegoodall.org/janes-story

Jane Goodall is a woman that follows her passion and shares it with others.

Are you following your passion and sharing it with others?

That is a question I struggle with and hope to learn as I share Strong Women.

The information written here came from several sources online.

Fantasy Tea Party at the Beach

 

Do you ever dream of running away? Joining the circus?

This is my dream

to run away, living on the beach with a cute vintage trailer like this.

Life would be simple.  Some days we need simple.

 Thanks to Di at designers block for sharing the first two pictures with me.

  When I saw these pictures my heart leaped for JOY.  

This is my fantasy.

Tea on the beach, soaking in the sunshine, and

listening to the waves.

Last Sunday, this was my day at the beach.

The sun was glorious and my heart leaped with JOY.

What is your fantasy?

****

peaceful afternoons

are chances to put the "tea"

in serenity

Haiku for Tea Lovers by David Ash

Earth Day

Celebrate!
Earth Day is today
Notice the small things in your day
on our earth.
What do you see when you look around you?
I see the children enjoying our earth.
The birds flittering about the bird feeder.
The flowers blooming.
All around me the earth is coming alive,
whether it is with the new growth on the trees, the waves
moving to and fro, or the volcano erupting.
The earth is making itself known.
Notice what you notice today!

Sending you Love

Sending you love today

May your week be a good week

Let not your heart be chained,

but set it free.

Allow it to fly with the wings of eagles.

Notice what you notice.

Breathe and find Joy in the Day.

Textures

Texture
Tactile
Touch
Nature
 Man made
Beauty
Soft ridges
Reaching
Feeling

The textures that surround me
cause me to notice what I notice.
They sing to me of the feelings of nature
and the created world of man.
Reach out and touch.

Strong Women

 

Jennifer Chiaverini, author of the Elm Creek Quilts novels.

 

A reader shares a quilt she made that was inspired by the books.
Jennifer's mom is to the right.  She often travels with Jennifer on book tours.
What a great opportunity for mom and daughter to have some quality time together.

To me a "strong woman" is a woman that knows who she is and follows her passion.
This is the beginning of a new Monday series called, Strong Women.
I am guessing it could go on for quite awhile, as there are so many strong women in my mind who could be honoured for following their passion.  Some will be living and some will have passed before us. They enchant me and I am drawn to them.

Here is a quote to begin the Strong Women series:

A Woman's Credo

I believe in the woman of hope

that lies within me

I believe in her strength drawn

from the depth of her being

I believe in the power fired from that

great depth of

compassion and love

I believe in the gentleness

of her strength

I believe she is a woman of dignity

reaching out to touch and be touched

at depth

I believe in the centre

She moves from and trust it fully

I honour

the wisdom and stillness

she offers me on my life's journey.

Author Unknown

The first woman to be honoured is Jennifer Chiaverini.
Last week I had the honour of meeting Jennifer at a book reading.
She is the author of the Elm Creek Quilts series.
Hearing her story of knowing she would write and following that dream inspired me.
How many of us can say we know for sure and go forward to make it happen?
Jennifer has written close to 20 books in this series and I have enjoyed reading 10 of them so far.
If you love quilts and women's stories, you will thoroughly enjoy her books.
Right now I have to say my favorite was The Runaway Quilt, just because I love any story involving the Underground Railroad and Quilts.

Welcome to Delights of the Heart new Strong Women series.
I hope you will enjoy it and some word or woman will touch your heart.

Find JOY

I have found such joy in simple things; a plain clean room, a

nut-brown loaf of bread, a kettle as it sings; a leaf-laced square

along a floor where yellow sunlight glimmers through a door. I have

found such joy in things that fill my quiet days: a curtain's blowing

grace, a potted plant upon my windowsill, a rose fresh-cut and placed

within a vase. A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair, and books I

long have loved beside me there.

~ Grace Noll Crowell ~"

I have found joy in quietly sipping a cup of tea, of smelling it's essence, taking in the flavors, feeling the warmth, and the pure joy of holding the cup in my hand.

Have a delightful weekend noticing where you find JOY.

Spring Passion

 
This morning as I stood enjoying the silence of the morning with my cup of tea, I was reminded of my passion for the out of doors.  The door is open, eventhough it is a bit cool.  I can hear the birds chirping.  I even noticed a little bird has taken up residence in one of our birdhouses.  The lilacs are blooming about two weeks early, but they are so beautiful.  The azaleas are beginning to bloom.  The most interesting thing happened this week in our garden.  We have had a honey bee hive in the hole in our tree for several years.  They don't bother us and we don't bother them.  This week the hive split and the new queen took some of her followers and left the old hive.  For awhile they clustered in a nearby tree, as you can see in the first picture.  They have left our yard now to start a new home, but for awhile we stood in amazement watching them follow their queen.  Isn't nature and the out of doors just a wonder and delight to take in and notice what we notice?

Strong Women

June Mulford sits to the right and my favorite realtor, Kama Dersham, sits to the left.

On Saturday Kama hosted an afternoon of burgers, drinks, and a film that hadn't been seen in 35 years.  The film was about June and her husband traveling the Pacific Crest Trail on horseback 50 years ago. There have only been three people known to have ridden this trail on horseback. The Pacific Crest Trail starts at the Mexican border and ends at the Canadian border, traveling through California, Oregon, and Washington states.  There were times when there was no trail to follow and they had to continue forging ahead until they found the trail again.

This is the story of a young couple that had a dream, blazed the trail,and made their dream a reality.  They created memories for a life time.

I am fascinated and drawn to "strong women", women that follow their dream.
Sometime in the future I will have a new Monday series about "Strong Women", but for now I couldn't help but share a little about a "strong woman" I just met.

A Respite

Saturday I needed a respite, a time alone.

Monticello Antiques was having their garden event.

As I stepped into this room full of the morning sunshine

birds were chirping and it made my heart sing with JOY.

I could picture sitting in the sun in this chair with you, my friend, soaking

up the sun and sipping a cup of tea.

Or we could have sat here on this lovely bench and listened to water trickle in the fountain.

White stoneware is so soothing to the eye.

 
The rosaries were displayed beautifully and eventhough
I am not Catholic, I thought they were beautiful.

What do you do to make your heart sing?
Do you need a small respite once in the while?

Sunny Days

I am so ready!  Sunglasses, check!

Now where is the sun?

In the meantime, my glasses are on my head and I am waiting for the sunshine.
Are you enjoying the sun?  Tell me where you are and
maybe I should come there.  I could follow the sun today.

Murchie's Tea Shop

 

Step into Murchie's and enjoy the sights and smells of an English tea shop.

The tea bar was to the left.  I had such fun picking out a few special teas to bring home.

The one I am enjoying right now is Magnolia Oolong, just lovely.

This teapot might be a little heavy to serve from, but a real conversation piece.

Isn't there something so beautiful in shapes?

A very stylized teapot.

What fun to see the Granny's having tea.
Why they were famous, I do not know.
Murchie's is a very old English tea shop in Victoria BC and so fun to browse.
 Any tea lover would certainly leave this shop with something in a bag.

Color

Color just makes my heart sing.
When I look at beautiful home decorator magazines
and I see beautiful rooms in cream and white,
my heart swoons and I wish I could have a room like that.
But when I look at the colors in nature I can't help but want these gorgeous colors to be a part of my life.  Sometimes I feel conflicted and don't know which way to go.  Do you ever feel like that?  There is so much beauty around us, I just want to wrap it around me and wallow in all the colors of the rainbow and all that nature provides.

Child's Heart

Hum of the bees

Croak of the frog

Laughter

Peace

Cameras snapping

Spring flowers blooming

Trickle of the water

Return to child's heart

Carousel

Quiet

Sweet scent of flowers

New growth

Awwww!

Tea

These are the words that came to me when visiting Butchart Gardens.

It was a most peaceful day!

Primrose Lane

The primrose has never been one of my favorite flowers.
They always just spoke to me in the early spring as I would walk into the market as the first spring flower.
It was the color that would catch my eye and I would end up coming home with one to remind myself that spring was coming.  But I really wasn't that fond of them.
Then I started realizing there were other varieties than the ones we see in the market.
I started noticing and I fell in love with them.

These were found in the Government Gardens in Victoria, BC, Canada.
The gardens were close to the B&B where we stayed.  What a beautiful place to walk.


From Wikipedia:
Primulaceae is a family of flowering plants with about 24 genera, including some favorite garden plants and wildflowers. It is also known as the primrose family.
The primula vulgaris is the most common primrose, one of the first to bloom.
It is often seen in Victorian cottage gardens.
The leaves can be steeped for tea.  (Now I haven't tried this; so not sure how they would taste.)

Take time to notice what you notice and if you see a primrose, cherish the beauty of the flower.

Easter Family Tea

Each Easter instead of the traditional ham dinner I serve afternoon tea for my family and a few friends.
This year was no different.  I wanted the table to feel like springtime with the colors of green, yellow, and pink.  In my role as hostess, I did forget to take pictures of most of the food.

The menu for our Easter tea:

Roast beef with carmelized onions (my most requested sandwich)
Egg Salad Sandwich with violets from the garden
Asparagus Quiche
Sausage Rolls with hot mustard
Radish Sandwiches with Watercress and Goat Cheese spread
Pea Salad, recipe from Afternoon to Remember Tearoom

Cream Scones with Orange Marmalade and Cream


Rum Bundt Cake with fresh strawberries
Chocolate Cupcakes with Peeps
Dried Apricots and Almonds

Tea with the Savories was the Osmathus Oolong
and with the dessert was a black tea from The Empress.

I had so much fun planning the springtime table and used my green depression glass plates, yellow flowers and napkins, and found some very pretty pink glassware at the market for ice water with slices of lemon.
The stand in the middle of the table was found several years ago in an antique shop that specialized in garden accessories.  It is a flower pot holder that came from a greenhouse in France.  It will go in our greenhouse one day, but for now I thought it would be fun to use on the table.
I think I am going to have to find a larger venue for holding our annual tea, as it is difficult to keep the group to only 10-12 people.


I hope everyone had a lovely day no matter what you celebrate, whether it be Easter or a lovely Spring day.
Double click on the collage to see the pictures in more detail.

Easter Eggs

Happy Easter and Passover!

Do you dye eggs for your celebration?
My eggs this year are dyed with different teabags.
I love the natural look.
In each cup I made a strong cup of tea and
added a hard boiled egg.
Then I just left it for most of the day.
When I removed the eggs from the tea this is what I saw.
The soft colors came from herbal and green teas.
The darker brown colors came from black tea.
You could do the same thing with different flowers or onion skins too.
Just steep them in boiling water, then add the eggs.
Enjoy!

May your day of celebration be full of JOY!

Easter Bonnet

Joey is excited because Easter is coming this Sunday.
He wanted to share his Easter bonnet with you today and not wait a minute longer.
Of course it doesn't have any flowers on it.  He's is boy after all.
This is his favorite hat.  It is so easy to make.  Do any of you remember how to make these sailor hats out of the newspaper?  Will you be donning an Easter bonnet this coming Sunday?  I hope you have special plans for celebrating Easter or Passover.  Joey and I have some special plans we are working on and will share next week.