"Spring Fling Tea"

The big day - the Spring Fling (virtual) Tea Party at ArtsyMama's "house". I have my tea tray ready - more cups available if hoards of you come by around 4 p.m. I have tea to suit everyone - Earl Grey, Harrods No. 16, P.G. Tips, English Breakfast, Assam, Constant Comment, Lemon Verbena, Peppermint etc.

There will be tiny cup cakes for tiny appetites, however my special Gateau de Mamy au Poire will be going into the oven around noon, ready to slice for you at tea time - served with real whipped creme and sliced almonds.
I love to serve tea in my Victorian gazebo. Looking forward to meeting you, serving you, and sharing special tea tales on the first day of Spring 2007.
For those of you wondering what this is all about - visit ArtsyMama at http://artsymama.blogspot.com/ and enjoy the party!!

A new day - a new friend

Awoke this morning to a gorgeous sunrise and snapped this picture from my front porch looking down the street - click to enlarge.

Then, when I went online I found a new friend, SOUTHERN HEART, who would enjoy hearing from you soon. She, like all of us when first time bloggers, wonders how people will find her and share her interests and news. Do visit her at http://truesouthernheart.blogspot.com/ Give Southern Heart a real Southern welcome.....................and for those of you up North, we down here really love to hear from you too as you well know.
What you give you get ten times over...........

Sewing beautiful fabrics

Cranked up the trusty old Singer last week and stitched the deep ruffled toile de Jouy European sham.................... at long last.

I special ordered the fabric in this colorway over two year's ago when I decided on the bedroom makeover colors. My paint is a perfect blue gray which changes in the different light during the day, and then deepens at night to a really relaxing, sleep inducing, chalky shade of warm blue.

The chocolate brown accent color is great with this blue and gold. The damask cloth on the round table (temporary nightstand until I paint an old sewing machine table I inherited) was aqua! Dyed in RIT dark brown it came out a really stunning shade which you'd never find on a bolt of fabric in a store. I've fallen in love with burnout velvet at the windows - so romantic and Bohemian - and when the light shines through the shadows cast on the walls are lovely. Loveseat is slipcovered in cream quilted cotton with seat cushion in cream matelasse.
At my favorite funky SuzAnna's Antiques, this already painted blue tin piece called out to me. Thought it perfect balanced on this little shelf where I display a favorite photo of me with Mother, and chocolate iron letters in those always wonderful "L" words.
I love this room - warm, romantic and feminine for me, with the chocolate accents making it comfortable for masculine hubby.

I guess this look could be called "Bohemian Cottage" for want of a better description.

Pretty Faces

Today, my always smiling granddaughter, brought home her latest school photo - another lovely shot to frame and make a new scrapbook page.

Meanwhile, out in the garden the Spring blooms are really bursting forth - this Pink Impression tulip is one of my favorites.These purple and white pansies are in my kitchen window box and I love looking at them when working at the sink!
More tulips and violas in pots in the back garden - such gorgeous colors.

Hope those of you still snowbound will soon be out enjoying your gardens too.

Shall we dine in tonight dear?

A few dining room pictures to share. I love having a true dining room even though it's small. We use it mainly for intimate dinners - max. of six, other times it becomes my cutting out table and scrapbooking desk! Cottage living means using every space available, when available!!

A Pink Bee found corbels this week and she mentions using them for a window treatment. I did this in my dining room - they hold a pole which in turn has held, at different times, curtain panels, formal top treatments, and my favorite - silk organza placements embroidered with gold dragonflies! At present I have a lovely grapevine garland with those tiny glass "raindrops" from Smith & Hawken dangling here and there - quite pretty at night when the lights are on.



Thank goodness for my Welsh Dresser with plenty of shelves in the dining room - I bought it unfinished, painted and distressed it for a shabby cottage look! I do love china - doesn't have to be expensive bone china in formal place settings, just anything pretty with Nature themes, writing of course, or pretty colors. The pink teacups are for afternoon tea with a girlfriend who may stop by - the cake plates don't match exactly but that's OK, they are pretty. The green china with shells and seaweeds is an old English pattern reproduced here in the USA. It's named TORQUAY which is my hometown in Devon, UK so of course I had to have at least a few pieces - it's terribly expensive. I often use it for tea when I'm on my own.

This sugar bowl and creamer, with another pitcher in back, are part of my large collection of Noritake's "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady". I love the illustrations of flowers, birds, insects etc., all named in English and Latin, and different on each piece. The plates, saucers etc. have lovely sayings and lines of poetry around the edges. I started collecting this set in the 1980's when I received an unexpected pay raise - a present to myself!

Hope you can visit me for tea some afternoon.

Unexpected Garden Visitors

OK Pink Bee - this one's for you.

Can you see her?

Sitting there so quietly right in front of my nose while I tied up the tomato plants one morning in May last year. Mama gray fox, glowing golden in the sunshine, had come to nurse her four adorable offspring. The kits appeared from under my neighbor's shed where she had apparently hidden them for safety. For several weeks we watched them feed, play, grow. Dad fox would stop by now and then, he was camping out in my rear neighbor's garden which is heavily overgrown, and would climb over the fence and come through my garden to check on his family. The kits often came around the fence and into my garden, playing like puppies until Mom chased them back. These were the two who seemed to enjoy posing - when I called to them they would pop out from under the shed and sit still for the camera. This shot was published in the local newspaper in the House & Garden "Backyard Sightings" section.

Here the four of them are playing after lunch - they were probably about 8 weeks old. (Click on photos to enlarge)
By the second week of June my neighbor - an elderly lady alone - decided six foxes in our quarter acre gardens were just too much. We called the city animal control officer and they brought a large humane cage to trap the animals. Can you believe not one of those wily foxes were stupid enough to try out the cat food left inside, hooray!!! Then, one day in June, they all disappeared, probably into the small wooded area across the cul-de-sac.

However.................................just two weeks ago, at dusk, Mom fox trotted across my front lawn, made sure no traffic was coming, and headed across the road into the woods. As you you can imagine, I will be watching this Spring - will they return with another litter? Will keep you posted.

The sad part is that these beautiful animals are losing their natural habitat as more and more parcels of suburban land are being bulldozed bare to build "McMansions", office parks, and shopping centers. I like to think they can still find a tranquil spot to raise their young - perhaps their choosing a little cottage garden is a sign that Nature is still, and always will be, kindly and caring, despite the atrocities of mankind.

Special day on my calendar

Today is a sad one for me - the anniversary of my dear Mother's death. Despite the fact we had been separated by "the pond" for 40 years, we had managed to see each other almost every one of those years, either by me crossing over in boats and planes, or by her flying here and having the time of her life. In the easier days of transAtlantic travel, we both enjoyed those flights, chatting with the "stewardesses" through long nights, moving around the cabin freely, and Mother was even celebrated with a bottle of champagne the time she was flying here on her 80th Birthday! Four years ago today, I visited with Mother in a small "cottage hospital" to say goodbye. I arrived the day before, having hurried to get a flight and get home in time. She was a proud lady who loved her country fiercely - she said she would never have let me come to America if she had known I would never return to England to live. And so..................on an early Spring day, as the sun warmed the beautiful green Devonshire countryside, we said goodbye, and for me, those long flights home will never be the same.

Fill out a "happiness card". It makes one realize that life is full of many wonders that enrich our days no matter what.

Today is very warm and the garden is calling to me. It's a tranquil place where I can think of Mother and remember how she taught me to enjoy digging in the dirt! I plugged in this little fountain on the etagere shelf - almost immediately my pair of Carolina wrens flew in for a drink. This photo I treasure more than anything, it was taken in 1913 in London. My Grandmother is holding twin daughters with her eldest daughter standing on her right. The boy on her right and girl on her left are my Mother and her twin brother. Five children in four years, wow!
Wishing you all a wonderful day surrounded by the love of your family and circle of friends.