Celebrate!

Once a year in June it's time to CELEBRATE my Blogoversary with a give-a-way.

Here's what you will receive if you are the winner:

- commemorative coronation mug of King Edward VIII

- King Arthur's Court at Camelot tea pot

- SIMPLE PLEASURES TEA book

- Two painted tea cups on canvas

(No, I didn't do the painting. I found them at Michaels.)

- and, a lovely tin filled with A Taste of Tea note cards.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post.

You do not have to do anything special.

You do not have to be a follower

(although, if you are the winner, it would be nice!)

On June 28, I'll use random number to pick a winner.

Thanks to our tea party hostesses.

These are just a few of the tea parties in the Land of Blog.

Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday

Tea Time Tuesday

Teacup Tuesday

Tea Party Tuesday

Wishing  You WELL and a lovely cup of tea!

Roses In Musashi's Garden

Every day I watch as the earth cracks.

We are in an extreme drought.

I am surrounded by huge oak trees and I don't think

even if my neighbors water,

they can water enough to keep them alive.

In Musashi's Garden, my postage stamp backyard,

I get a break from the drought.

I have small citrus trees and one Japanese Maple.

It's the roses that bring me great pleasure.

I have four new roses this year.

Enchanted Evening is a lavender floribunda rose.

It is a little darker purple at the center with a silvery reverse.

They have a citrus like scent.

Double delight is a hybrid tea that may be very familiar to you.

It has been a big favorite of rose lovers for quite awhile.

It received high honors in 1977 by AARS.

Creamy white flowers brushed with deep red and a wonderful spicy fragrance.

The Bill Warriner rose is a cluster floribunda filled with salmon colored flowers.

It is named in honor of Jackson and Perkins' chief hybridizer,

Bill Warriner.

The fourth new rose is Sun Flare.

Sun Flare is a rose hybridized by the legendary William Warriner.

Disease resistant, hardy floribunda with non-fading yellow blooms

and an unusual licorice fragrance.

All of these roses are compact enough to be in containers that I can move

around the garden to get the best location to make them happy!

Thank you to our hostesses:

Mary for Mosaic Monday

and 

The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday.

Wishing YOU WELL and a JOY filled week.

Kitties and Cream

I had so much fun last week combining postcards

 and haiku that I thought I'd try it again!

This postcard is from The Cat Postcard Book published by Running Press.

The back of the postcard reads:

Little White Kitties into Mischief, 1871, by Currier & Ives (American).

Hand colored lithograph. Museum of the City of New York

Harry T. Peters Collection.

I'm pairing this postcard with the photo from the June calendar page

published by the United States Humane Society.

It's brought a smile to may face everyday.

It's a real awwwwwwwwww!!!!!

early morning tea

kitty happily lapping

surprise starts the day

A big thank you to our hostesses:

Beth for Postcard Friendship Friday

and

Rebecca for Haiku My Heart

***

So many of you have left wonderful comments and sent me emails 

asking how I'm doing and cheering me on.

I had a telephone call last week from the protocol nurse who was so helpful

during Mr. Dragon's chemo, radiation and surgery ... that all went for naught.

It was a rough telephone call. I'm afraid I wasn't very *nice*.

I told my step-daughter that I guess I'd too many good days and needed a really rough one!

I am managing. Almost through all the estate paperwork.

But I miss him and I know I always will.

He had my back and I had his.

My back is lonely.

***

Wishing YOU WELL and a JOY filled weekend.

Good Morning!

Tea and Cake

Last week I had a birthday.

I went out and bought myself a cake and some flowers.

Came home and put 6 candles on the cake.

One for each decade.

(I didn't want to burn the house down.)

Lucille, my sister by choice, knows me well.

She knows that two of my favorite things are tea and birds.

For my special day she gave me the lovely Audubon porcelain tea pot (with infuser).

And, two mugs with spoons.

I'm a very lucky girl.

When I blew the candles out, I sent a special message up to the stars.

"I miss you and love you and I'm trying hard to LIVE."

The cake was a red velvet chocolate cake with cream cheese icing.

I had it for breakfast several days! 

It was not on my diet, but birthdays come only once a year.

Thanks to our tea party hostesses.

These are just a few of the tea parties in the Land of Blog.

Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday

Tea Time Tuesday

Teacup Tuesday

Tea Party Tuesday

"Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude 

and the pleasures of company."

~Author Unknown

from

365 things Every Tea Lover Should Know