* Afternoon Tea and Happiness Cushions

Kathleen and Ivan asked me if there was anything I would like them to bring which I couldn't get in Mexico.  My thoughts immediately drifted to tea.  A good old fashioned 'British Cuppa'.  Hmmmm.  Images of tea pots and gorgeous tea cups came to mind.  I remembered the afternoon teas we had at home.  Every afternoon at 3:00 pm.  Tea ... and a little something delicious.  Papa often wanted a little piece of Mama's special 'christmas cake' which somehow lasted all year.  Memories of my time in England flooded back.  Tea on the "Flying Scotsman", traveling from London to Glasgow.  Those were the days ... silver service tea and cakes served to you on the train.  I remembered one particularly lovely afternoon spent with my Mama at a great play in the west end of London.  I had ordered tea as a surprise for her.  It came at intermission, to our seats.  Full silver service ... tea and cakes.  How we enjoyed that.   And then there were the tea trolly's in friends homes in England.  Laden with cucumber sandwiches and petit fours, they would be wheeled in on a moments notice to share as part of a wonderful afternoon with friends.  Ahhh, I have been blessed to experience all these lovely things.

I adore tea pots and tea cups.  I have my parents silver tea pot with me, however, for whatever reason it's turning black on the top shelf.  I have a feeling if I took it down and polished it, I might be tempted to use it.  My good china tea set survived the breakage disaster of moving, so I could be using that as well.

At the moment, I boil the kettle, plop a tea bag in a cup and pour.  Not very genteel .... :o).

I digress.  Back to the story at hand.  So .... when K & I asked me the 'what would you like' question, I immediately said "Tea please."  Tea in Mexico is herbal.  Tons of the stuff everywhere.  The negra (black) tea is a mere shadow of it's British relative.  I want BLACK.  I want STRONG.  I want RICH.  I want ENGLISH BREAKFAST TEA ... just like the Queen, please!

And so it was, they brought me tea.  Not just a little bit of tea either.  An ABUNDANCE of tea.  I feel RICH.  I feel like people must have felt in the Victorian era when they had an abundance of tea ... like I want to lock it up to protect it, to keep it safe.  ha ha!  Such a concept.  I am happy.  I am over the moon.  I have tea.  Tea to drink and Tea to share ... it doesn't get any better than this.  Thank you Kathleen and Ivan.

An Abundance of Tea.

Here are the beautiful cushions I bought at the fair.  They make me smile just looking at them.  I call them my happiness cushions!

 

AND ..... TA DAH .....  Lady Lovely herself ....

"My name my dear, is Senora RedWing, all one word.", she informed me yesterday.  "You may call me RedWing."  And so it is.  "Welcome, RedWing.  I know we shall have a long and wonderful relationship."  (Personally, I have a feeling she could be a little "RedWingie", if you get my meaning!  Who am I so say .... he he)

"Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think.  Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.  ~A.A. Milne