Lovely October Birthday Tea

Ah, Autumn, how I love thee!

 This past Saturday we had a perfect autumn day 

 so I headed outdoors for a perfect little tea for one.

I grabbed a few essentials and went out to my garden room

to enjoy a quiet and leisurely tea time.

Sipping and reading and bird watching was the order of the day!

This past weekend was also my birthday, so

I thought I would celebrate in style and use the beautiful

Royal Albert teacup set that my sweet blogging friend

Margie from Tea in the Valley gifted me a few years ago.

I surrounded myself on this quickly put-together tea time 

with gifts from wonderful and caring friends.

First thing I did was to clip a few lovely blossoms from the

 limelight hydrangeas in front of our house.

They are beginning to turn, and are just so Autumn-y!

(Thank YOU, Heavenly Father for the beautiful gift of these flowers!)

I placed them in a Lenox china vessel my women's club friend Melinda

gave me as a hostess gift when visiting a few years ago.

It's the perfect size for hydrangea and peony cuttings.

I placed an antique glass frog that fits perfectly on the bottom

 to keep those floppy blooms in place.

My dear friend Kitty from Kitty's Kozy Kitchen 

made me the beautiful crocheted doily.

The bird-themed napkin is from my tea society friend Karen.

She collects the most gorgeous paper napkins.

Needless to say I spent some time thinking

 about each of these precious ladies,

 and what a true blessing their friendship is to me.

And the REAL star of the tea show:

My neighbor Tiffany and her sweet daughter made us 

a huge box of wonderful Polish pastries called Kolachi.

They were so good, and made a wonderful teatime snack!

The little cake plate came from a great thrift find of my older sister.

A couple of years ago she texted me because she had found

 a set of 8 signed and dated hand gilt-painted beauties

 at a secondhand place near where she lives for a GREAT price,

 and asked if I wanted to buy them?

My answer was an emphatic and resounding "YES, PLEASE!"

They are in perfect condition, and are over 70 years old!

After my tea I walked around the gardens and took this pic-

which is just so perfect for October!

Funny, we never planted these Japanese Lanterns - nature did.

We have had them for about 5 years now.

They are waning, but still so awesome looking.

And on the subject of flowers and such -

 my daughter divided her Purple Aster

 and gave me a beautiful nice sized plant!

October's Party

by G. Cooper

October gave a party

The leaves by hundreds came.

The chestnuts, oaks and maples,

And leaves of every name.

The sunshine spread a carpet,

And everything was grand,

Miss Weather lead the dancing,

Professor Wind, the band.

As always, thank you for your visit.

Please stay well.

Hugs,

~Michele

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