Royal Tea Party

I attended a Royal Tea Party on Friday to celebrate the wedding of William and Kate . The tea was hosted by one of my former garden club members, Mrs. Doreen, who is from England. She and her fabulous group of friends, which are from Wales, Scotland as well as England, did a great job.

Mrs. Doreen's niece came from England to go to the beach last week, and was nice enough to bring some wedding memorabilia and party supplies.





Some of the ladies brought their china to use at each table

I'm liking the idea of my face plastered all over a tablecloth and plates when I get married ;-). Of course I'm not nearly as photogenic as Kate, and nor do I plan on getting married anytime soon.

The food was great. We were served scones, cucumber & egg sandwiches, quiche and.....

Cupcakes

Apparently it is custom to pour your milk in your cup before the tea is poured. After Mrs. Doreen reminded us a few times, I think we got it. I always pour my coffee first, add sugar next and then add my cream. I have to have it the right shade!



Here are some of ladies from Great Britain, a few weren't pictured here. They all had fantastic hats. They were such interesting ladies. I am all about somebodies story. I love to hear people tell their story. One of the ladies at the tea was from Naples, Italy. How does one get from Naples, Italy to Satsuma, Alabama??? Thats the kind of stories I love. Don't get me wrong...I love Alabama and there is no place I'd rather be, but from Italy, Scotland, England and Wales to lil ol Alabama...you know thats a good story!

Here is Mrs. Doreen serving tea and probably reminding us to pour our milk first.

That is the Hydrangea Queen (in the yellow dress) enjoying her tea and scones.

And here is the Dirt Princess enjoying hers.

I am really liking this hat thing. I could wear hats all the time. I would have the big, gaudy, over the top hats. Everyone would be talking about me and my crazy hats.

I mean...look at these! Aren't they fantastic!!!! Maybe I will start picking up hats here and there and start wearing them to church. I just love them. I love the ones that go on the side of your head. They are just great.

Ok...let me get off my new found hat fetish.

I took my computer to a friend that is a computer guru. Thank goodness he was able to save all of my pictures! I was so happy. I am going today to get an external hard drive to ensure this doesn't happen again. I also purchased more storage space from Google. The Blog file that was lost (but now found) had 6,213 files and 83 folders (13GB of stuff!) in it...so it was pretty important for me to get it back. I appreciate all of your emails and comments. Ya'll are wonderful!

By the way...if some of ya'll are having a hard time reading my new font let me know. I know some of you mentioned it....so if I need to change it just let me know.

Bloomin' Tuesday....My First :-)

Well I thought I would go ahead and join in on Bloomin' Tuesday today. This is my first time to partake in Bloomin' Tuesday actually.

Today I am sharing the garden of one of the garden club members. She lives down on the creek, and has some beautiful scenery, and A LOT of mosquitoes. If I lived there I would just have to wear a bug suit, because bug spray wouldn't do me a lick of good! I am currently eat up with red bugs, also known as Chiggers (click on "red bugs" to read more), and that's no fun. Bugs love me for some reason. So I don't know if I could live here..... 

It is a beautiful place though. Lots of color! I always love seeing other gardeners gardens. You can really pick up on their personalities with the things they have in their yards.

She has a lot of whimsical items in her yard.

She has a gorgeous pool with a great view of the creek. If you look in the picture you can see her dock.

I have seen some interesting things in people's gardens, but this was a first. A horse from a carousel! I love it!

I think I'm gong to go back and steal this deer from her LOL!!! Ya'll don't tell her. I loooove this deer head. It would look great at my place....well when I get a place.

Back on the creek, she has a lot of bird house.

There are Cahaba Lilies (aka Shoals Spider Lily) growing all in the water. Cahaba Lilies are only found in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina (according to Wikipedia). I had some in my yard, and although my yard wasn't in a low lying area, they did really well. This lily is quite hardy. It can grow in water or dry land.

Here is a picture of a Cahaba Lily from my old house

Well that's my Bloomin' Tuesday! I am off to scout out some more places to share with ya'll!

Fall Fun!

What a wonderful Fall weekend! The weather here has been amazing! In the 60's during the day! My town celebrated their 50th Anniversary over the weekend, they had events starting Thursday through Sunday. Saturday they had a parade, and local vendors were set up in the park. It was packed! The Garden Club decided to have a booth, and do a plant give away. We had several members donate plants. We also raffled off a Satsuma tree.....fitting since I live in SATSUMA! Our town used to grow Satsuma's several years ago. Satsuma trees were a major source of income for the community. The men helped harvest the fruit, and the women helped box the fruit so it could be shipped.

There was a great little parade, with all the works!

Ramona & Audrey got to the park early to get our booth set up. They did a great job!

We had so many different types of flowers and seeds to give away.

The City of Satsuma always decorates the Square so festive for each holiday!

Audrey's granddaughter, Meaghan, came out to help as well. from what I here she will be joining the club as soon as she can drive!

Ruth, one of our members, runs the Kirk House and Gardens. You may remember THIS post on it. She donated all of these plants, so in turn we asked people to make donations to the club.

Our little Satsuma tree! We sold raffle tickets for a chance to win.

There was even live music in front of Gulf Coast Opera. Ya'll don't be jealous! Nashville has the Grand Ole Opera, and Satsuma has the Gulf Coast Opera!

The children seemed to be the most interested in gardening! We loved that! Start 'em out early!

Ramona bought a bouquet of flowers with her to put on our table. I noticed two bees on them. It was pretty cold, and they were barely moving. We snapped a few photos of them. they pretty much hung out there all day! Apparently bees don't like cold weather!

Audrey found the President of the Student Council from Satsuma High School, and asked him to draw the name of our Satsuma tree winner.

And the winner ended up being the grounds keeper from the City of Satsuma!!!

A few pictures of vendors.

This family LOADED up on plants. They took home atleast 10 plants!

how cute are the little gardeners!

It was a great day, and we got lots of free "PR" for or club!

Bilbo is once again on the move. This time he is heading to....well I'm not sure what city or state yet....I am working on that one...BUT he is going to visit with Brianna at I Can't Decide. As usual, I will keep you guys updated on his where abouts. I know there are alot of you that would like Bilbo to come visit you, so hang in there...because he will eventually make it to you. Just be sure to comment on his host's post when ever he pops up. I know I originally said his journey would end in October....but let's admit it....THIS IS FUN!!! Atleast it is to me. Are ya'll still enjoying Bilbo??????

....and I am working on the seed swap ;-)