Tea Time Thursday #78 ~ My Fairy Gardens

Do fairies like tea? Well, of course they do! I'm sure the fairies in my garden and especially the ones that live in my fairy gardens enjoy a good cup of tea!

I finally was able to put my fairy gardens together. I found two wonderful cup and saucer planters for two new gardens this year. I was on the hunt for the teacup planters and found one at the thrift store early in spring and one at an estate sale for only $2. Yes, I do love a bargain!

My daughter Gina gifted me with this fantastic book on gardening with miniature plants and lots of ideas for creating miniature gardens last Christmas. It has been fun pouring over the pages and dreaming all winter! Thank you Gina.

This is my first fairy garden that I put together three years ago. The little evergreen tree wintered over and is doing well.  The garden has changed a bit, but it's basically the same garden. I tidy it up and redo it a little every summer.

This is my new pink teacup fairy garden this year. I used a thyme plant in this one. It's more fun to add a little live plant to your garden.

Here's a close up of the garden....Mom's Rose Cottage. The fairy that lives in this garden is really sweet and I think she's my favorite.

My second new teacup fairy garden is a bit whimsical. I had to use the lemon house with the yellow and green colors of the pot! I found the little houses at a garage sale with LaVonne when she was out visiting a few years ago. I finally got to use them.

You can get a closer look in this photo. I love the little green frog sitting on the rock. I will be adding bits and pieces during the summer.I think the first thing I need to find is some teacups for those fairies!

In December, I gave my high school buddies a fairy and challenged them to make a fairy garden this summer. It's just for fun, no pressure. My friend Judi sent me this picture to show me her garden. Great job Judi! I hope you had fun.

Happy Tea Time Thursday. It may be time for an iced tea and time to make a fairy garden. I have put together a Pinterest board if you need some ideas....Fairy Garden Challenge.

Tea Time Thursday #68 Spring Time!

What a beautiful day in Oregon! It is warm and sunny and a great day to be alive. I have this little garden bench in front of my garage and just had to snap some pictures outside for Tea Time Thursday.

I have these sweet little mini daffodils in a giant teacup planter. I found it at the Goodwill a few weeks ago and am hoping to use it for my fairy garden this year. I looked and looked for one last year and never found one. My good friend LaVonne says that things will come to you, but you have to wait sometimes. She is always right.

I have lots of little fairies, but this one may have to live in the new garden...or maybe I will have to have more than one fairy garden. I have challenged some of my high school buddies to make a fairy garden this summer. It should be a fun adventure.

So of course, I thought I should feature a daffodil cup and saucer today. I found this one last month at an estate sale and thought it would be a fun teacup for spring.

I am not familiar with the maker on this cup and saucer. It is marked Society, Made in England and bone china. I love the design.

We had Otto at our home today. His mommy's car went out and there is construction going on at their house, so Jimmy went and picked him up this morning. He has been just a JOY today. He loves the sunshine and loves his walks with Grandpa. The flowers are back so they gather them on their walks.

Otto received a package in the mail today from LaVonne....just in time for St Patrick's Day! It also doubles as a parking lot for little cars.

Otto's mommy and his auntie ( from Seattle) are going to be joining us tonight. Otto had a late nap so he can stay up with the girls. Should be fun. Maybe will have a cup of tea together tonight!

Tea Time Thursday #46~Books, Bees and Mint

Jim and I sit outside most mornings when we have out coffee and lately I have been watching the bees go crazy in my mint. I let most of my herbs flower, just for the bees. I have let the mint take over one area too where nothing else really likes to grow. I love to brush by the bushes and smell the mint.

This is an illustration by Wayne Anderson of the mint fairy in a book called THE MAGIC CIRCUS.
He is a British illustrator who does a lot of children's books. I love his work and need to explore his art.

I love that she has one foot on a lovely bee.

Look closely and you will see a bee on the mint flower. I tried to get a bee or two in each photo. My daisies are done in the front yard, but a few are still flowering in the back with the mint.

I have a pumpkin plant that has gone crazy and is growing up into the mint. It would be fun to get a couple pumpkins.

I spy a pumpkin under the rose bush! I will have to watch it. Maybe the fairies will protect it!

I picked ups some fun books a few weeks ago at an Estate sale. I was excited as I found some that I didn't own. The lady was a tea person as you can tell.

Years ago I read all of Jan Karon's Mitford books and just loved them all. I was sad when I had read all the books in the series. I not a strong reader but I so enjoyed them. If you have read her books, you know they are always talking about food, so she put out this cookbook. I have checked it out from the library but at $2 I decided to take it home. It's a lovely book and filled with great recipes...very enjoyable.

I decided to share her recipe from the book for CYNTHIA'S HEAVENLY TEA.....

3 Lipton family-size teabags, tags removed
2 sprigs fresh mint leaves, plus mint sprigs for garnish
1 cup granulated sugar
1 (6 oz can) frozen lemonade, thawed
2 (11 1/2 oz) cans apricot nectar
6 tsp almond extract

Place the teabags and the mint in a pottery or glass pitcher and pour in 2 cups of cold water. Bring a kettle with 3 cups water to a rolling boil. Pour the boiling water over the teabags and cover the pitcher with a small plate. Steep for 10 to 15 minutes, then remove the teabags and the mint leaves. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Stir in the lemonade, apricot nector, almond extract, and 3 more cups of cold water. Serve over ice and garnish with a fresh mint sprig.

Makes about 10 cups

There's still a bit of summer left to enjoy some ice tea and use your fresh mint leaves from your herb garden. I don't have Lipton tea in my house, so would probably just use a nice black tea.

Happy Tea Time Thursday!

Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice...the longest day of sunshine and the shortest day of darkness...is here today and that means it is now summer! I have heard that this is a very special day for the fairies as can be seen in this delightful work of Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. I had a feeling something was up as some fairy things appeared around my home all day!

My Tasha Tudor friend, LaVonne, has always wanted to have a virtual Summer Solstice event and this was the year! She suggested we have a bonfire and make SMORES to celebrate. She did just that in Montana tonight. I had hoped to join in the fun and even gave Jimmy Father's Day money to buy a fire pit. He decided to go to his gold mine claim and cabin in Idaho, so no smores for me!

I did get to keep Otto overnight and that made the first day of summer very special for me. He was all ready for summer-dressed in his little summer shorts. He is so cute! He's cutting more teeth, so he had a few hard days this week. He needed to come to Grandma's for some special lovin'. I get to have Ava tomorrow night...I'm sure it will be a Barbie event.

To celebrate today, I bought Otto a stroller that I could keep here. I love to walk and thought this would be good for both of us. I put it together this afternoon and was all set. He wasn't too sure he liked it for awhile. He was getting tired.

So, how could Otto and I join in the Tasha Smores party? Well, we could at least have a snack! This is what we had and Otto was pretty excited to have a new cookie. We split one and he fed me half of mine. He laughs when he feeds you which is adorable.

I put my baby down and picked up the house and thought I heard something outside. Hummmm, a fairy wand was sitting on the little table outside and it was glowing.

I checked the fairy garden under the blueberry plants and it looked like a new lantern had been added! Oh, those fairies were up to something, I just knew it.!

I turned all the lights off and noticed a glow from the new lantern! I think there's going to be a party tonight!

Just checked the little guy and I see that the Midsummer Night's fairies had been in there. I'm sure they kissed his sweet little cheeks or sang him a lullaby.

Nighty night! Happy Summer days ahead for you and yours.

Garden Therapy

Last week Jimmy and I headed over to our favorite garden center to get a truck load of plants. Deep Creek Garden Center has a great selection and the staff is really helpful. The plants are healthy and it's a very fun place to go to spend your money! It's close to home too. We took out the twisted and overgrown plant a long the front of our house this spring. I was ready for a clean and updated look. We also lost so many plants with our colder winter. I love to dig in the dirt and call it my garden therapy. Can you relate? Retired Jimmy looks so happy!

Retired Linda looks pretty excited too! We actually made 3 trips to the nursery that week. It's best to do the front and back in stages.

Here I am at home, unloading the truck and getting ready to plant, plant, plant! The weather was really nice, not too hot and no rain.

I had to replant the bed under the front window. You may remember I redid this bed a couple of years ago, but lost all my lavender plants this winter...sigh. Trying something different this spring.

A long shot of the NEW front bed...I love it! It should be easy to keep up. I planted another day lilly. This one is pink and has room to spread to catch up with the orange one.

Most of these plants did survive. I did take out some overgrown plants and cleaned out this garden area too. Looks so much better.

I just caught the pink azalea in full bloom! I think the fairy likes it too.

A few SUNNY shots to enjoy. I get full sun in the afternoons and with the brick front, it can get pretty hot. Full sun plants for sure!

My Italian hubby has gotten into his little veggie garden this year. He found some yellow tomato cages at a sale and then bought some on 1/2 price to finish it up. It looks really nice. He has onions, tomatoes, cukes, summer squash and patty pan squash. Every thing is doing well and we have tiny green tomatoes already. He does a variety of small tomatoes...we just don't have a long season for the big tomatoes here. His dad was the master of tomatoes back in Illinois when he was living. Angelo had a tomato forest...really. He had this metal pipe frame and the tomatoes would grow over it. I have a picture of me somewhere standing inside of it....amazing! We don't get much sun in the back, but I have a pumpkin and some beets back there near my herb garden. We'll see what happens.

This is the back where I put in the herbs last years. It's all really pretty this season.

I replanted my fairy garden...note the tiny tree! I hope I can keep it alive over the winter. It is a container plant. I just couldn't resist. I have put in few more items since I took this picture. It sits under the blueberry trees.

Otto and Angie stopped by one afternoon. Otto was so interested in my little plant that came up in the sidewalk. That little plant just never gives up!  Otto didn't either!

He gave it a good pruning! It has actually bounced back just fine. It's so pretty, I don't have the heart to take it out.