Welcome to my garden tea party. Today I am serving tea under my peach tree in my back yard in sunny Southern California. I am serving Red Rose tea from Canada along with homemade chocolate chip cookies, and strawberries. Tea is served in, what was used daily by my Nana, Royal Albert Old English Rose china.

Unfourtunatly the teapot did not make it through my last move, so I used a tespot given to me by a cousin in Canada. It does not have the name of the pattern on it, it is stamped “Sadler England” on the bottom.

Along with tea, cookies, and straberries I am serving pirouette wafer cookies in a flower pot tied with pink tulle and hand sewn fuchsias. The linen napkins are also tied with them as well. Shabby candle sticks with ribbon and fuchsias in case tea and a chat linger into the early evening. The chairs are dressed with pink tulle tied in the back with a handmade rose pinned on it. I am sending my guests home with a mini loaf of maple bread tied with pink tulle and a stick pin slipped through the knot and set in a pink shabby bowl to add to the frills.
Later this week I will post recipes and more pictures.

Growing up on the coast of California we had our share of birds. Pigeons and sea gulls of course, but I have some childhood memories of others. My neighbor had a huge magnolia tree that crows often visited. I could hear them in my house sqwaking at each other. I use to call them “Del Mae’s Birds” after our neighbor since they seemed to me that they lived there. In front of our house we had telephone lines that the smaller birds pearched themselves and chirped in song. Now I have a magnolia tree of my own, although the crows in my neighborhood haven’t visited it, their sqwaking can be heard. My crepe myrtles attract the smaller birds and invite them to nest.
Dear friend, Deena of Sweet Annee has loaned me another beautiful bird picture as well as a picture of one of her tattered fine feather friends that she makes. Take time to listen to the birds, feed them and watch them too. They are fine friends indeed.

Lord bless my little ones and shape their hearts and minds.