Teacup Tuesday

I found a lovely cup and saucer at the thrift store this morning. It was made by Royal Standard and the pattern is Mandarin.

This pretty teacup by Paragon had no saucer but I find it so pretty ( and because it had no saucer it was marked down). The pattern is Flower Festival.  I love the shape.

          This delicate soup bowl had to come home with me. I don't have another like it.

The outside is rather plain but look at the inside.  Underneath is written Swansea and on the internet I learned that Swansea was made by Wedgwood.

I didn't buy this one today but I can't remember if I showed you this one or not but it is too beautiful not to share.  It joins my Japanese collection.

All the new teacups needed more space to display and my DH built this set of shelves last week. On Sunday he and youngest son secured it to wall on the porch. The paint was hardly dry when I put the teapots on top. That can of paint ( which was a 'miss tint' originally bought for the taller cupboard to the right) is just about empty now.

Gretchen, you wondered if the top cup in my before-last post was a Royal Grafton. No, it's Royal Standard.  You also wondered if I sat on the red bench by my Hostas. Just opposite is a wooden swing that hangs from a beam.  I have a blanket to make it extra comfortable and that's where I tend to sit if I'm not on the porch swing. Yes, I do have a love of swings!

Thank you for coming by and letting me share my thrifty treasures.

G.M.

My Day

It rained all day. The roses hung down their branches heavy with blooms and the blue Iris which has the weakest stems, fell over. I went to cut them off and bring them in so we could enjoy them. Iris are hard to arrange in a vase I find. I end up just stuffing them in a jug.

In spite of the rain we took the grands and went to some garage sales. I found, among other things, a Brambley Hedge journal ( which is so pale on the photo that it's hard to see), a purple shawl ( for when I get old,  haha), some books and a Bone China Christmas teacup that I didn't yet have and wasn't really wanting but she was only asking a dollar. .

I'm excited about the Ami McKay book. She's Canadian. Lives in a house in Nova Scotia that was once a birth house. I'm assuming she researched the history of her house and based her book ( fiction) on it.

       I was happy to find this dragonfly brooch and have already pinned it on to a jacket.

I baked cupcakes and peanut butter  cookies. Did a tiny bit of housework and now it's evening.
I hope you had a lovely day too!


Granny M.

This and That

I was surprised at the different views on lemon curd in my last post. I can imagine how delicious a lemon pie would be filled with pure curd. My lemon pie fillings have mostly come from a box I'm rather ashamed to admit.

Does it happen to you that you want to do a post but really don't have much to write about?  That's where I am today so I've looked at my pictures and chosen some recent ones that hopefully I haven't yet shared. Of course teacups will predominate. I just love this first one. So bright and cheery!
I'll just let you browse through  ( or not ) and wish you all a wonderful Friday!!

If you made it till here you deserve a medal. Thanks for coming by.


Granny Marigold

Lemon Curd and Iris

Have you tried making home made lemon curd?   I've heard people rave about how delicious both the store bought and home made taste so I looked up a recipe for easy lemon curd and made it. It has nice texture, a tiny bit 'gritty' and very lemony. Not nearly as sweet as the store bought.

Below is a picture I took off the internet and also the ingredients are below the pic.

INGREDIENTS: Glucose-Fructose Syrup, Sugar, Water, Lemon Juice from Concentrate (8%), Maize Starch, Palm Oil, Dried Egg, Rapeseed Oil, Citric Acid, Gelling Agent (Pectin), Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrate), Lemon Oil, Colour (Carotenes), Antioxidant (Ascorbic Acid).


Here's what's left of the curd I made. Obviously paler and it doesn't have all the strange ingredients of the above. Just lemons, sugar, eggs, and butter.

Well, I made it and now I know. I doubt I'll make it again. I just wondered if anyone else made it and would they make it again.

 I brought a bunch of Iris in and put them on the table. The light blue one has a wonderful scent and fills the room with it. None of my other Iris have much, if any, scent.


Thanks for coming by,


     G.M.

A Sunday Walk

On Sundays we try to find places to walk other than the one we normally walk. We had a lovely day of sunshine and because it was warm we walked on a path that we knew had many trees that would provide shade.

I know creeping buttercup is an aggressive weed that you never want to have in your garden but I couldn't help but admire the bright yellow stars against the green foliage.

I hope you had a good weekend.  It's a long weekend here in Canada, tomorrow being Victoria Day.
No doubt we'll see some of our children and our granddaughter Kate is coming to cut her Grandad's hair as she always does.

Thanks for visiting,


         Granny Marigold

In the Garden

                         Large buds on the Poppies are ready to pop!

                                The white Rugosa is beginning to bloom...

                                           ...as are the pink ones.

            My white Bleeding Heart seems to have disappeared but the pink ones are looking good.
 

I didn't get very far with my plan to make glass flowers but I did put these oversized Christmas balls onto holders that my DH made.

 I had a lovely Mothers Day and was thoroughly spoilt by my family. There was also a delicious cake that my youngest son brought but we ate it before I thought to take a picture. 

Are you having a good week?   It's cool and rainy here today. A chance to get some housework done!!

Thanks for coming by,

            Granny Marigold

Happy Mothers Day

 Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms, Grandmas, Aunts, and Anyone who takes the time to 

nurture a child ( of any age, not just a little one. They all need love and caring!)

Bird Feeders and Lilacs

Every year around this time, when my Spring Clematis blooms, we change the look of the bird feeder.  The red top is taken off and the pink one set in its place.

                      The bottom piece is three-sided and slips over the tiled front.

                                Here the Clematis is not yet in full bloom. In the background you can see our                          20 foot high Lilac. It's getting harder and harder to reach any of the flowers.

There is a lilac bush across the street in a yard no one cares for much ( the man who lived there alone died recently).  That shrub has the most lovely white blooms that are tinged with pink until they open fully.   DH knows how much I love those flowers so he went to get me just one blossom. Yes, that is a single one. Isn't it huge?

 It's a very warm and sunny day today. I've been outside but now it seems just too warm to do much. I'll wait until the cool of the evening. 


Thanks for stopping by,

           Granny Marigold

Teacups and Raccoons

It wouldn't seem like Tuesday if I didn't have treasures to share. Two Royal Albert tea cups today, both with blue forget-me-nots. This first one is quite petite and delicate. It's from the Dainty Dina series and is called 'Emily".

            The second is  from a series called Nell Gwynne and is called Covent Garden.

I have another RA cup which unfortunately has no saucer but has the same shape as the Covent Garden one.  It is called Serenity.

And just for something other than tea cups I will show you some pictures from our morning walk yesterday.  These are the first Canada Geese babies we've seen this season.

Our biggest surprise was to see not one but two raccoons up in the tall trees. They looked quite young and we speculated that they didn't make it home before people began to walk in the park so they retreated up where they felt safe. Raccoons are mainly nocturnal so we don't often see them although we know that several live in the park.

 

Thanks for coming by today. I hope you leave a comment so I know you came by.

                        Granny Marigold

My Day

I got a lot done today. Started off with grocery shopping. After that was put away we went to get a pick-up load of good black garden soil. Some of it we spread around but most of it will go to our older daughter's new flowerbed and youngest son's tomato pots. That's for tomorrow though.

In the afternoon I made fudge. I don't remember if I made any at Christmas but it seems like a long time since I last tasted any so today was the day.  It's just that simple recipe using condensed milk and chocolate chips except that after I had poured about two-thirds of the melted chocolate into the pan I added a good dollop of peanut butter to the rest before pouring that on top. It turned out just like I wanted it to.  Later I made lemon-cranberry Biscotti and put those in the freezer for unexpected company or just for our own enjoyment.

Now it's evening and I think I'll watch some more YouTube videos. Lately I've enjoyed The Solitary Rambler, and also the Lake District Walks with Eric Worsley. I love the scenery and find the videos very relaxing.  In one of the Solitary Rambler's videos he walks through ( and later visits) a tea shop called The Wrinkled Stocking Tea Room. Wouldn't you love to go have tea there? 

So that was my day. I wonder what you did today. Why don't you tell me in your comment?

Granny Marigold

 

 

Flowers and Herbs

A trip to the garden center with my DH and my older daughter this morning.  DH patiently pushed my cart as more and more plants 'leapt' into it.  I did have a list of things I wanted to buy but a lot of .69 and .99 plants were added  " just because".  The basil in the front here below will be transplanted this afternoon and will stay up on the porch near the table so I remember to actually use it. It will thrive on the sunny windowsill.  Next to it are a couple of plants of Thyme. For some reason most of mine didn't make it through the winter so I'm replacing them.

These Lilies are some that I bought last time I was at the garden shop.  They're opening nicely.

It just wouldn't be right if I didn't have a tea cup or two to show you.  This Royal Albert one has a tiny crack so was marked down to $4. Since I wanted it just for display that was fine.

This tea cup was also very inexpensive because there was no saucer. I think it's so gorgeous that it joined my many other saucerless cups in a bassket.

Plants and tea cups make me happy. The plants also give me a lot to do so I'm off to make a start.

Thanks for coming by.

Granny Marigold