You are PRESCIOUS!

The words on the sidewalk say it all today.

A Time for Rest

Bald Eagle

Bushtit ~ there have been many of them in my yard this week.
They love the water from the sprinkler.

Goldfinch having dinner

This Goldfinish was posing just for me.

Special bird spottings in the past couple of weeks.
***
A time for rest
A time to take in the beauty around us
Peace
Quiet
This is my wish for you today

An Evening Tea Tasting

It was a lovely summer evening last Thursday when we ventured
out to the Portland Chinese Gardens to have tea with Veerinder Chawla
and the Teahouse Staff of The Tao of Tea.

There were 5 tables, each with it's own theme.
This table was serving Old Growth, Rare, Tea Forest
Puer Teas. Each table served 4 different teas, each different from the other.
My favorites here were the 25 yr old Guangdong Puer Cake and a new blend,
Yunnan, Black Pepper Puer.

We were served small finger foods at each table to go along with the tea.

Veerinder's table served Oolongs. My favorite tea!
Here I liked the Pinglin High Mountain oolong from Taiwan
and Single Trunk Oolong from Chazhou.
We also had the pleasure of tasting Drunken Cloud oolong, which Veerinder grew and
processed from his own yard.

The evening garden was so pleasant to walk through.
I also found two black teas, which I really liked. They were
Hunan Summer Black, very light, and Star Village, Wuyi, a slight smokey flavor.
A fun way to enjoy a summer evening tasting tea.
***
A poem by Sung Dynasty poet Tai Bing,
translated by Martin Tai (1998)

Tasting Tea
Fetch my own spring water,
Fragrant with fallen flowers,
Set up a fire in a marble stove
Try out my new tea,
Lying under the green shades in a tranquil garden
Listening to the bees
Reporting their latest harvest.

Beverly Cleary on a Warm Summer Day

Did I say warm? No, I meant HOT.
It's a hot summer day, not just warm here in Portland.
Time to visit the playground and cool off.
Grant Park has a tribute to Beverly Cleary
with a fountain perfect for the children to cool off.
Beverly Cleary's books take place in the neighborhood that includes
Grant Park. When my children were in elementary school they had a parade
to honor her. They dressed as different characters from the book. Beverly
rode in the parade in a yellow VW convertible. They paraded through the neighborhood of the books. It was a thrill for the children to meet her and honor her.
The first statue in the fountain is Henry.
Henry is larger than life and the children like to
see how they compare to him in height.

Ramona is my favorite character. I remember
the Ramona the Pest story the most from
my children's reading time.

Ribsy was Henry's dog and watching the fountain this day was the favorite
statue of the children playing there. You can see his back is worn with the many children who have sat on him. This day there was one little boy about the age of 3 that loved Ribsy.
Each time the dog was unattended he would slip onto his back with gentle smile.
Each time another child would come by, he would get off and let them sit awhile.

Part of the fun of hanging out in the park and enjoying the water is sharing with one friend the pleasures of the best snowcones ever. I was like a child when I found that the same snowcone vendor was in the park that was there when my children were small.
Such simple pleasures, but ohhh so good on a hot summer day.

Monday Linen Days

Tea cozies are a part of my vintage linen collection.
The cozies here were each found at an antique sale
in the Cotswolds of England.
Funny, but when I bought all there, the lady said, "oh I wish I had brought
all of the cozies from home." I probably would have bought
them all too. She was charging 2 euros each.
I love the embroidery and lace.
The cozy in the middle I use often.
There was one more to the collection that now lives
at my daughter's home.
****
"Never trust a man who,
when left alone in a room
with a tea cozy, doesn't try it on."
~Billy Connolly
***
Love that quote.
Have you ever put a cozy on your head?

The Waterfall

Pt. Ludlow Falls, Washington

The Waterfall
by Mary Oliver

For all they said,
I could not see the waterfall
until I came and saw the water falling,
its lace legs and its womanly arms sheeting down,
while something howled like thunder,
over the rocks,
all day and all night -
unspooling
like ribbons made of snow,
or god's white hair.
At any distance
it fell without a break or seam, and slowly, a simple
preponderance -
a fall of flowers - and truly it seemed
surprised by the unexpected kindness of the air and
light-hearted to be
flying at last.
Gravity is a fact everybody
knows about.
It is always underfoot,
like a summons,
gravel-backed and mossy,
in every beetled basin -
and imagination -
that striver,
that third eye -
can do a lot but
hardly everything. The white, scrolled
wings of the tumbling water
I never could have
imagined. And maybe there will be,
after all,
some slack and perfectly balanced
blind and rough peace, finally,
in the deep and green and utterly motionless pools after all that
falling?

Tea at the Waters Edge

We didn't celebrate Mother's Day with my mother in law in May, as we were traveling.
So the past Sunday was our Mother's Day celebration.
We found a lovely beach with picnic tables in Sequim, Washington
and I set the table for afternoon tea.
As I set the table there were little girl's nearby that were watching, there were exclamations from those walking by,
and my mother in law had exclamations of "oh".

The table was set with my wedding china.
The vase with the rose was a gift my mother received for her wedding.

We sipped Ambrosia herbal tea from teatreasures.com in Austin, Texas.
Don't you think the tea is such a pretty color?
The menu was:
Cheese and Tomato Sandwiches
Egg Salad Sandwiches
Cucumber and Tuna Bites
Black Olive Sandwiches
Fresh Fruit Skewers
Lemon Curd Tarts with Raspberries
Lemon Verbena Cookies
Chocolates
I think everything taste better eating in the out of doors, especially
when you have a beautiful view.

We enjoyed the sights of the water.
It was great fun to surprise my mother in law with tea at the waters edge.