Tea Time in the Summertime

Welcome back to Tea Time Tuesday, my lovely friends, and welcome Summer! I just love Montgomery's quote above and I have shared a few photos of our beautiful island for our tea today. I hope you enjoy them! 

Stop and smell the roses.

While I was away, Summer arrived, and since my last posting, the roses and lupins have bloomed. My lupins didn't come up but there are plenty decorating the fields and ditches here on PEI. 

Lupins at Stanley Bridge with a red clay road in the background

I regret I did not take the picture below. My neighbor up the street did but this is a perfect example of how beautiful our island is.

Lupins along the shore at Tea Hill

I have gathered some of my roses to enjoy with our tea. 

My roses are not the most exotic in the garden but their scent is reminiscent of the wild roses that grow freely along the sea shore here on the island. Their scent is quite intoxicating and I love how they waft their fragrance through a room.

Wild roses mixed among evergreens along the seashore.

Roses by the River Clyde in New Glasgow

Ah, summertime! A time to savour the blossoms and sweet fresh air, a walk along the beach or a path through the woods.


                                                    Dalvay


                    Rolling hills and pasture land in New Glasgow


              Our son taking a walk through the woods with a friend. 

         
We had a wonderful visit with our son who has spent the last three years in Illinois completing a postdoc. In a couple of weeks he will be moving across the country to another state for a two year postdoc position. After that he will apply for tenure. Many folks have no idea how many years of study and research it takes to become a full-fledged Math professor; more than an MD actually. But he's almost there and we are so proud of his accomplishments!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing a few pictures of our island before we have our tea.

I love arranging my old-fashioned roses in a canning jar.

On Wednesday, we Canadians will celebrate Canada Day and my American friends will celebrate the 4th of July on the weekend. 


                               courtesy of the Internet

I thought red and white would be appropriate for Tea Time today.

I am using my Burleigh Felicity and Mason's Vista teacups. Both teacups are made in England. 

 Felicity 

Vista

I took a cranberry and almond tart from the freezer for our sweet. Sorry, no home made treats today.

Hubby and I had tea at the New Glasgow PEI Preserve Company on the weekend and I tried a new tea while there. I had to borrow this picture from the Internet because I forgot to take one.

courtesy of the internet

I liked the tea so well that I brought some home with me. It is Tea Hill Strawberry and it is delicious! A loose leaf Ceylon black tea with blackberry and strawberry.

I also got a new teacup there but I will share that another day.

Happiness is sharing tea with a friend.

Thank you for visiting today. I hope you didn't mind my long post. 

Please join me by linking up your tea/coffee/chocolate/iced tea/lemonade things, tea time recipes, or a trip to a Tea Room. We tea ladies enjoy all of those things. Wishing you all a delightful day and have a lovely and safe holiday this coming week.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting - a wayward sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am also linking up to these wonderful parties ~

A Return to Loveliness
Tuesday Cuppa Tea
Tea in the Garden
Tea Cup Tuesday
Share Your Cup Thursday
Home Sweet Home

An InLinkz Link-up

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi

Tea Time and Lilacs

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfilment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade. ~

Gertrude Jekyll - excerpt from Victoria May/June 2011


Welcome to Tea Time my lovely friends! 



It is lilac season and the blooms are just right for picking.

I love how the light makes these lilacs look ethereal and the scent fills the room with a heavenly perfume.

I have pieces of china that look fabulous with lilacs but none look as pretty or so charming as my Johnson Bros. Rose Chintz. Those little lavender blue flowers in the pattern pick up on the colour of the lilacs so nicely. So I hope you will indulge me today. My little lavender turtle is joining us too. He hasn't made an appearance in quite a while.

An old-fashioned bouquet of lilacs and old-fashioned china call for old-fashioned tea treats. So join me, won't you, for a nice cup of tea with cookies and some tea biscuits with rhubarb sauce. 


Life is like a teacup to be filled to the brim and enjoyed with friends.~ Unknown 

I have been busy jarring up rhubarb sauce so we can enjoy a little taste of summer throughout the coming months. 

Mmm, good! The nice thing about rhubarb sauce, is you can serve it so many ways. It's wonderful on toast or English muffins, crumpets, biscuits or scones, ice cream, cake, etc. Or it's lovely right out of a bowl. My simple recipe for the sauce is at the end of this post.

Perhaps you would prefer an old-fashioned sugar cookie with your cuppa. Both the pink and the green plates on which my goodies are served are Old English made by Johnson Bros. 

My children favoured these cookies when they were growing up and since my youngest is arriving home this week, I decided to make a batch. I always cut them out big with a raisin in the center.

Happiness is sharing tea with a friend, or two or three.

Savour the scent of lilacs for they won't last long.

It's the month of June,
the month of leaves and roses,
when pleasant sights salute the eyes
and pleasant scents the noses. ~ Nathaniel Parker Willis

Soon my roses will be in bloom too. Love this time of year!

There will be no Tea Time Tuesday next week because my son will be home from Illinois and this mama is most anxious to spend some time with her boy. These precious moments don't come along very often and I know you will all understand. 

Sweet blessings to you, my friends!

People need people and friends need friends

And we all need love, for a full life depends

Not on vast riches or great acclaim

Not on success or worldly fame

But just in knowing that someone cares

And holds us close in their thoughts and prayers.

~ Helen Steiner Rice ~

Food for thought today: 
Smiling not only increases your face value; it's contagious!~ unknown


RHUBARB SAUCE
Clean and cut up stalks of rhubarb into 1 inch pieces to make four cups. 
Dissolve 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup water together in a saucepan then bring to a boil. 
NOTE: You may add 1/2 TBSP strawberry jello powder to the mixture if you desire. 
Lower the heat and add the cut up rhubarb. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Pour into sterilized jars. Will freeze well too. This recipe makes about three small canning jars of sauce.



I am joining the following parties as well~

A Return to Loveliness
Tuesday Cuppa Tea
Tea in the Garden
Tea Cup Tuesday

An InLinkz Link-up

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi

Beautiful Blossoms for Tea Time

Tea Time Tuesday

One June evening, when the orchards were pink-blossomed again, when the frogs were singing silverly sweet in the marshes.... and the air was full of the savor of clover fields and balsamic fir woods, Anne was sitting by her gable window. She had been studying her lessons, but it had grown too dark to see the book, so she had fallen into wide-eyed reverie, looking out past the boughs of the Snow Queen, once more bestarred with its tufts of blossom. ~ LM Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables

Welcome to Tea Time Tuesday dear friends! I thought LM Montgomery's quote suited my post perfectly today because I am sharing my Blossom Time china. 

It is apple blossom time! My father was born and raised in Nova Scotia where Annapolis Valley has the most beautiful apple orchards. It is in the month of June that folks travel to admire the millions of blossoms and savour their enchanting scent. 

If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. 
And it never faded, and it never got stale. 
And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again. ~ Daphne du Maurier

From the end of May to the first of June, Kentville, NS celebrates the Apple Blossom Festival where they have one of the largest parades in Canada with the crowning of the Apple Blossom Queen. 

                 RCMP members set off at the opening of the Apple Blossom Parade - 

courtesy of the Internet

Congratulations to Alxys Chamberlain of Kingston, NS, the 83rd Queen Annapolisa!

courtesy of the Internet

Apple blossoms - courtesy of the internet

Royal Albert's Blossom Time was inspired by the blossoms in Annapolis Valley back in the 1930s. 

"In 1933, G. R. Palmeter left a meeting of the Apple Blossom Committee at the Cornwallis Inn to purchase china from a representative of the Royal Albert China of England. While there, he asked the salesman about creating a pattern called "Blossom Time," to tie in with the Apple Blossom Festival. The design is an actual picture of the Ralph Eaton farm, in the Annapolis Valley. {Nova Scotia, Canada} The result was "BLOSSOM TIME" china". - courtesy of the internet

The square dessert plate I found at a thrift shop for $4.99 and the teacup was gifted to me by my Aunt Judy. 

I so admire this pretty pattern!

This pattern is so beautiful and perfect for this time of year. Each piece draws you in for an intoxicating walk through the orchards.

My Auntie P, Uncle Doug, and my cousin Cynthia arrived from Moncton, NB for a visit and I made some rhubarb crisp for our tea. Served warm with a dollop of whipped cream, it is such a treat this time of year. Rhubarb can be served in so many ways which is why I can't get enough of it.

The sweet vintage spoon was gifted to me by a dear blogger friend who, when she saw the letter "S" inscribed on the handle, she thought of me.

Won't you join me for a cup of chamomile tea?

It's not the tea that makes teatime special, it's the spirit of the tea party. ~ Emilie Barnes from "If Teacups Could Talk" 

I hope your day is filled with blossoms of  joy!

I am simply delighted you have stopped by today and I am happy to see all your tea things, whether you have shared them before or not. This tea party is all about sharing your joy of tea time and you may be as creative, fancy, or as laid back with your tea time as you wish! 

Happiness is the realization
of God in the heart.
Happiness is the result
of praise and thanksgiving,
of faith, of acceptance;
a quiet tranquil realization
of the love of God.~ 
White Eagle from the book "A Book of Joy" by Thomas Kinkade

Anne of Green Gables and Matthew riding through the apple orchard.- courtesy of the Internet

I am joining the following parties as well~

A Return to Loveliness
Tuesday Cuppa Tea
Friends Sharing Tea
Tea Cup Tuesday
Home Sweet Home

An InLinkz Link-up

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi

The Colour of the Sea and the Sky....and Carnations for Tea Time

 I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June. ~ LM Montgomery - Anne of the Island

Hello friends and welcome to another Tea Time! Can you believe it is June already? One can look forward to those "lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer." 

I love the scent of late Spring and Summer, don't you? There is something in the air, a warm balmy scent which is hard to describe. Sometimes it is laden with the scent of flowers and other times, freshly cut grass. I think, other than Christmas, it is the most romantic time of the year.

If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance. ~ Bern Williams

Summertime for me means walks on the beach with my hubby and I cannot wait to get out there and savour the warmth of the sand between my toes and the sound of waves lapping on the seashore. It's a most peaceful place. *Sigh*

My boys will soon be home too so I'm also looking forward to that.

What do you look forward to this Summer?

Now onto my tea....
I am sharing blue tea things today. A pretty Botanic Blue teapot, teacup, and creamer all made by Port Meirion. 

All three of these pieces have an overall floral and butterfly pattern with tiny polka dots in the background; very summery in design. I also have a pink coffee mug in the same pattern but I won't share that today.

The teacup and creamer both have a wee butterfly just inside the rim. 

Blue, the colour of the sea and sky.  

Also on the table is a vintage pink depression glass teacup. Sorry, I forget the name of the pattern.

I have two of these cups which I found at an antique shop a few years ago. The pink, to match my flowers. 

Last week's carnations have a bit of browning around the edges which gives them an old fashioned appeal and the other posies are the same shade as the carnations; sort of a peachy-pink. A frilly, fluffy bouquet for our tea table. Pretty?

Won't you join me for a cup of tea? I'm having Twinings Chai today. I always take mine black.

A cuppa and a lovely magazine.

Have a beautiful day everyone and enjoy this new season which is upon us.

I love things that bear the touch of time; chips and all - they're more beautiful than perfection. ~ Victoria magazine 


I am joining the following parties as well~

A Return to Loveliness
Tuesday Cuppa Tea
Friends Sharing Tea
Tea Cup Tuesday
Share Your Cup Thursday
Home Sweet Home

An InLinkz Link-up

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi