Hoppy Spring!

It's time for some tea and for Vee's Note Card Party.

I'm going to take a trip back in time and share some of my posts

celebrating Spring and Easter. 

Rules of Chocolate Easter Eggs:

1. If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating too slowly.

2. Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices, and strawberries all count as fruit,

so eat as many as you want.

3. Diet tip: Eat an Easter Egg before each meal.

It'll take the edge off your appetite, and that way you'll eat less.

4. If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer.

But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what is wrong with you? 

Wishing YOU well, much joy, a wonderful cup of tea, and a Happy Easter!

Vee, thank you for hosting the Note Card Party each month.

A big thank you to our tea party hosts:

Tea Time Tuesday

Teacup Tuesday

Friends Sharing Tea

Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Little Things

It's the Little Random Things:

-Comfort food like Mushroom Risotto with Peas.

- A trip to the bookstore -- browsing heaven.

- Lunch with my "sister by choice".

- Friends who wait with you while the locksmith drills out the locks so you can get into your house after you lock yourself out and can't find the key.

- A rose blooming in Musashi's Garden

It's the Little Things.

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Thanks, Kim!

Thanks, Nancy!

Happiness

According to Emma Bridgewater

Happiness is a Bunny Rabbit

and I have to agree.

The Teddy Bear is all dressed up in his bunny costume ready for tea and scones.

The orange cranberry scone is from Trader Joe's.

TJs makes my favorite scone better than I do. 

The mug of the month for April is Emma Bridgewater's 

Happiness is a Bunny Rabbit.

This is a child size mug that I fell in love with.

The mug and scone are on a bunny plate I found at Pier One several years ago. 

The tea is TAZO Awake -- I'm running slowly today and needed an extra wake up call!

This is Tea Garden by Frederick Childe Hassam (October 17, 1859 - August 27, 1935.

He was a prolific American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes.

He produced over 3,000 paintings, watercolors, etchings, and lithographs over the course of his career, and was in influential American artist of the early 20th century.

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

A big thank you to our tea party hosts:

Tea Time Tuesday

Teacup Tuesday

Friends Sharing Tea

Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Meet Belle and Willow

Meet Belle and Willow, the two new American Black Bears at the Houston Zoo.

*They were hanging around a bar in the mountains near Maricopa, California when the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were notified. The older of the two orphans had made herself right at home and regularly wandered into the bar. A few weeks later, she was joined by another young cub. They quickly learned to paw at the ice cream freezer until someone gave them a treat and even made friends with local kids.

Unfortunately, these adorable baby behaviors translate into a dangerous nuisance as the bears grow up. They were taken to DPW holding facility after their adventures at the bar. Calls were made to different zoos to see if anyone was looking for bears. These two girls gave the Houston Zoo the opportunity to talk about conservation efforts of bears in the wild. No one knows what happened to the mothers of our girls. It is illegal to hunt black bears in Texas, but is legal in other states. The cubs' appearance a the bar coincided with the California hunting season so it is likely their mothers were shot by hunters.

Historically black bears ranged throughout Texas, but they were largely eradicated by hunting in the early 1900s. The bears are making a come back in Texas. Because it is illegal to hunt them here, they are migrating into the state from neighboring states.

You notice that they are called American Black Bears but they are, in fact, brown in color. There are several subspecies of black bears in North America and this difference in coloration reflects the differences in subspecies.  Most of the bears east of the Great Plains are black in color while the bears west of the Great Plains are brown or a lighter cinnamon color.

*All written information about Belle and Willow from Wildlife published by the Houston Zoo.
Photography of Belle and Willow by me! 


Wishing YOU well and much joy!





Thank you, Misty!

Thanks to Eileen at Saturday's Critters.

Little Things

It really is the little things.

-A cat (or two) curled up next to me while I read.

-A good book ... this week a police procedural:  Roseanna by Sjowall and Wahloo.

- Stepping into Musashi's Garden (my postage stamp backyard) and smelling orange blossoms. The citrus trees are full of blooms.

- Coming into the house from the garden and smelling like rosemary and basil.

- I'm used to seeing Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, their blue jay, dove and sparrow friends,
but when I looked out the door yesterday I saw this little guy and his friend.
I grabbed the camera to try to capture this little house finch, but all I got was cute little tail feathers. Perhaps they will be back today.

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Thank you, Kim!