For me, drinking tea has always been a pleasure, with or without the party! My freezer shelves are lined with boxes of tea ready to refresh company at a minute's notice. But through the years I've learned it's not what you serve, but the spirit in which you serve your guests. So whether you're entertaining in the Victorian manner with an afternoon tea, or just sipping with a friend in an intimate setting, you are the one who sets the mood~tea just enhances the ambiance and provides a focal point for casual or more personal relationships.
The links below are sites I visit often. I hope you'll try some of my own recipes. And for those of you who like to garden, please explore the delightful world of herbs and the ways in which they can enrich your lives.
As of today, July 16, 2008, I have a variety of herbs in the garden. Behind the grape arch, which I put up at the end of June, is a large stand of lemon balm, Oswego tea, eau-de-cologne mint, meadow sweet, spearmint, tansy, and pink and white yarrow. I just added beards tongue and a perennial geranium, to fill in with my different ferns. In the round bed, lined with bricks and sporting an oriole feeder, is my echinachea and cat mint. Along the south east edge is rhubarb, asparagus and two new blueberry bushes. At the extreme south end is a honeysuckle arbor and a miniature rambling rose bush. In front of the rose, and behind the echinachea, is a bed with several more perennial lilies and miniature flags, and several plants I haven't the faintest clue as to what they are...I rescued them from Lowes at the end of the summer a couple of years ago and they say thank you each year by putting on quite a show. The summer flowers in front of the patio and pond are perennials from many friends, and again, I don't know a lot of the names, but I think often of those who shared them with me! This year I added some annual and perennial herbs along the west edge: basil, sage, thyme, lavender and lemon verbena, along with some rosemary starts I hope will take off and do well, and I found a neat rusty Herbs sign to display. In front of the small greenhouse to the north, I have redraspberries, lambs ears, southernwood, thyme and oregano. Enjoy and watch for new pictures as more flowers burst into bloom.
