Having Fun With The Boys

AJ and I spent a few days visiting with daughter Melissa and her family in N. KY. The boys played outside riding scooters and bicycles.

We went to see the little guy, PJ, at Taekwondo. He is only 4 years old, and is the smallest in the class. His instructor says he is doing very well.

The boys went to a movie, we went shopping, and we ate at AJ's favorite restaurant, Oriental Wok.

Our visit ended today with pizza and games at Chuck E. Cheese's. The boys are showing off some of their ticket winnings in these photos.

AJ and I enjoyed our visit, and returned home this evening.

Soccer and Scones

AJ had a great week at Challenger Sports British Soccer Camp. The coaches were from various places around England. At the end of the camp on Friday, I mentioned to Coach Gaffer (above) that AJ had been to England three times, I have been six times, and that we love traveling in England. The discussion continued like this:

Coach G: "AJ, what do you do when you are in England?"

AJ: "We drink tea and eat scones."

Coach G: "Really! You know what scones are?!?"

AJ: "Yes, they are best with clotted cream and strawberry jam."

Coach G's mouth has dropped open at this point, speechless for a moment, and obviously wanting an English Scone after being in the USA for several weeks. He turned to me and said: "You have biscuits here, but they just aren't the same as scones!" :-(

A note from Linda:

During this discussion, I was remembering all the fabulous places in Britain we have toured, including castles and more, and all the historic steam engine trains we've traveled on with this little guy over the beautiful countryside. But I couldn't help but be proud of my 10-year-old tea-drinking, scone-eating American soccer boy who knows I love to visit English tearooms where we have lots of tea and scones, and making memories.

English Gardens

Just remembering English Garden photos from our trip last year....

The tile guy working our our house can't understand the "messy" English Garden his wife (my friend) planted and thoroughly enjoys. Considering his profession of laying tile and wood floors, he works and thinks in patterns and straight lines. She is a messy desk, go with the flow, flexible gal. I pulled up a few of my photos of gardens around Chipping Campden, England last year to show him a few authentic English Gardens so maybe he can see that she really has a plan to her "messy garden."

Summer Camps

It has been a busy summer of attending day camps. So far, Austin (AJ) has attended Basketball Camp, Art & Drama Camp, Archery Camp, and this week, Soccer Camp. Camp Invention is the last scheduled camp. He is having a great summer. Guess who the taxi driver is?

Funnel Cakes and Baseball

Eating funnel cakes and watching baseball on a beautiful Kentucky summer evening. Can't get much better than that!

A friend gave GJ, the hubby, tickets to the Lexington Legends game tonight. The temperature was 80 degrees with very low humidity. It was a good way for the family to enjoy a fun evening together and eat supper of ballpark chow. We couldn't resist having funnel cake for dessert.

FYI for you Georgia gals reading this — the Legends won 2 to 1 over the Rome Braves.

We Are Back!

We enjoyed a fun week at Hilton Head Island with Austin and Kaitlyn. We spent the mornings on the beach and in the evenings we visited all our favorite restaurants. We didn't visit tearooms on this trip, but drank lots of iced tea as the temperature was in the upper 90's every day.

I have made many treks to the beach in my lifetime. However, this was the first time to see a shark. The lifeguards made everyone leave the ocean while it swam around following a school of fish. I first saw it as it swam in front of Glenn and the children. It was a scary sight, bringing back memories of the movie Jaws. Thankfully, no one was injured and the school of fish ,with the shark following, left the area and everyone returned to the water after about 30 minutes. Just FYI, I remained under the umbrella and only went in water to my ankles after that!

We are back home and cleaning up drywall dust from the house renovation. A lot of our furniture has been moved out of the house and the rest was covered, but we still have plenty of dust! The inside painting begins tomorrow.

Back to reality after a nice week away!

Happy July 4th

Have a great July 4th holiday with friends and family!

I will be "disconnected" for a few days due to the house renovations.

Most of the exterior work is complete, and they have moved inside. All my teapots (and practically everything else in the house) are packed up and stored in plastic totes in the basement for the next few weeks.

Need More Tea?

I love to learn new things about tea and teatime. I've taken many tea classes and read much about the tea experience, but just recently learned this from the Tea 2009 Calendar. "Tip the teapot lid askew to signa for more tea." How simple can that be!?!

The test will be whether or not the server knows what it means....

Teatime Hooks

I plan to hang these wrought iron teapot and teacup and saucer hooks in my new laundry room when it is completed. I also found the cute little hooks on my recent trip to Hobby Lobby.

Teapot Candle Holder

This is a heavy wrought iron decorative teapot candle holder from Hobby Lobby. I thought it might be good for a citronella candle in the evenings. We've had more than our fair share of mosquitoes in Kentucky this summer.

Tea Caddies

I found several tea caddies at Hobby Lobby to add to my collection. Do I need them? Probably not. Do I want them? Yes!

This brings my little collection up to ten tea caddies in assorted sizes and shapes!

I Won a Blog Giveaway!

Thanks so much to W. Latane Barton over at Life in Wakefield for the fabulous Virginia-themed package from her first anniversary blog giveaway! The package included a tea towel she appliqued, a vegetable dill dip mix, an Old Virginia Pound Cake Mix, a Virginia key ring, and a package of Fresh Cooked Virginia Peanuts. Oh my, I had forgotten how good Virginia peanuts are!

Latane, please tell that cute little great-grandson for thank you for drawing my name!

Linens and Lace Fundraiser Tea Party

The Berea Senior Citizens Center hosted their first fundraiser tea party yesterday. The menu included a Country Ham Biscuit, Traditional Cucumber Sandwich, Herb-Cheese Tomato Sandwich, Cranberry Scone, Fresh Strawberry, Cream Puff, Petite Four and Russian Teacakes. In addition, they served hot and iced tea.

They had a silent auction of many donated items and a live auction by our mayor of the picnic themed table above. Music was provided by the Madison County Dulcimers.

It was a nice afternoon to visit friends and enjoy the air-conditioned indoors on a very hot Kentucky day.

Welcome Friends for Iced Tea

The new covered deck overlooking the pool and attached to the current deck is the perfect place to enjoy iced tea!

Friends are certainly welcome to visit us in our home, but please excuse the mess as the renovations moved inside the house this week. The work on the existing living room-dining room ceiling will continue on Monday.

Thank goodness the leaking chimney/living room wall has been repaired. Well...actually it has been torn down on the outside and built around. That leak has apparently been there since the house was built in the early 1970's. After much $$ spent for "repairs" over our past 21 years in the house, this is the drastic solution!

The very large living room window has been removed and will be a connecting doorway into the new front addition.

I just realized we will have to put up our Christmas Tree in a different location after 21 years of having it in front of that window. Funny how profound thoughts come at odd times! Surely, the work will be complete by Christmas?!?

Oh my, I need another glass of iced tea from the freshly brewed pitcher of Harney Earl Grey Supreme!

Taste of... Freshly Picked Beans

The current June/July 2009 issue of Taste of the South Magazine features an article about fresh "green" beans and a local farmer-researcher, Dr. Bill Best, his treasured heirloom beans and Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center. Bill and his family are very well known at Farmer's Markets in this area of Kentucky for their large quantities of various vegetables, especially tomatoes. In addition, I try to arrive early to purchase their freshly picked quick-selling blueberries.

Unfortunately, I haven't made it yet this spring to the local Farmer's Market held on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. I need to put that on my "to-do" list. Hopefully, I will be able to find my list when I need it!