Surprise roses

Happy Friday.

Loving hubby has a standing date with his amateur radio friends for lunch

every Friday afternoon.

Today, he came home with two surprises!

A case of diet pepsi in cans

and........

red roses!

I put them in water and quickly took a few pictures to share.

The room was too dark in the first one, we had the blinds closed due to the heat outside.

Who doesn't love roses?

While I love our oak trees for the shade on the porch, they don't  give enough sun

to grow the roses I would love to grow.

So every once in awhile I get a surprise.

He actually got down on bended knee (his bad one too) when he gave them to me.

Yes, he said words.

Very special words between us.

The dark red roses match my new Old Country Roses tea cup/saucer/plate

We bought in Brandon the same day we were at the new tearoom.

NEWS

For us this weekend starts the baseball All Stars which our almost 8 year old

grandson, Jacob is part of.

In fact, today was opening day with "skills" competition and they had to cancel

due to rain/storms at the field.

The team has a good chance to go on to MS if they win the competition here this week.

No, we will not be able to go to MS if they do as loving hubby has his knee replacement

surgery July 11th. 

Have a wonderful weekend.

Do you have one of the these?

Tire swings.........

Pure summer simplicity at its best.

Enjoy.

Nothing is worth more than this day

            ....Johann Wolfgang von goethe

PS Did anyone catch the pumpkin by the porch?  I took this in Vermont in the Fall

several years ago for the swing and the stunning foliage.

Played around with photoshop elements for way too long this morning with

results I did not like......

attempting to change the leaves to "summer green".

So then shared in black and white.

Vermont in the Fall

Summer Time

Welcome Summer!

Living on the Gulf Coast of Florida, when the calendar shows June 21,

many of us have headed North or those here, hunker down, turn up the a/c

shut the blinds and if you are like me, dream of other summers of

long ago.

I have always loved this particular footed tea cup and the lacy pedestal dish.

It is the month of June.

The month of leaves and roses,

When pleasant sights salute the eyes,

And pleasant scents the noses.

   ...... Nataniel Parker Willis

As with most of my teacups, this set was gifted to me by loving hubby

on one of our trips.

They are hand decorated by Betty Platner.

Made my Porcelain Treasures.

I especially like the lacy cut out design. Makes me think of summer.

This is where my heart goes when I think of Summer......

This is looking out toward the back from the back porch/patio

Dad's garden.

Lots of tomates, zucchini and my son (as a little boy) is holding

yellow squash.

I can still taste the stuffed tomates with tuna salad that was my favorite

all summer sitting on the back yard picnic table.

Yes, my summers have been very different for the past 30 years.

Home is where the heart it.

My heart has always been split in two.

My grown children and their families are here in Florida.

but......

On June 21st my heart is most definitely in beautiful New York State.

I am linking with Sandi for Summer Dreams Tea

http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/

Trish at

http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/

Kathy at

http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/ 

Please join all the other guests to see summer blooming in a most beautiful way.

A Delightful New Tea Room

Good morning!

Hope your weekend was wonderful.

Today I am sharing the delightful new tea room, loving hubby and I found last week.

We found this lovely tea room on our way to another restaurant for lunch!

As we turned a corner, there was a small sign for a new tea room....

You all know how much I love tea rooms....and how willing loving hubby

is to going with me anytime.

Yet......we were really hungry and knew we wanted more than tea and scones.

We turned another corner and there was a banner announcing

Tabitha's Tea Grand Opening!

Of course, I could not pass this up.....and we are so glad we did!

Above is the lovely room we ate in.

There are several separate rooms like this.

Guests were enjoying their lunch/tea  in the other rooms so I only took "our room".

The tables were set with Old Country Roses china.

Which as most of you is one of my favorite patterns.

While we wait for our tea and lunch......

I am going to take you back to the foyer as you come in the front door.

Lovely entrance that greets you as you enter.

The hutch in the corner is filled with Old Country Roses China and another

patten for purchase.

Beautiful china.

Love the lace curtains on all the windows.

A selection of teas and other tea goodies to take home.

This is a "honey" spoon. 

With all the tea rooms I have been in, I never remember seeing "honey spoons".

A great idea.

Closer view of their tea selection to purchase

This is Laurie who along with her mother and sister are the owners of this

lovely tea room.  The tea room is named for Laurie's 17 year old daughter,

Tabitha.

Now really, does this lady look like she has a 17 year old daughter?!

Laurie is one of the most delightful, gracious people I have met.

Gracious with my rambling about how much I loved finding her tea room

when she was also trying to serve several other customers who I had not

realized had come in while I was taking photos.

Thank you Laurie for making our tea room experience such a delight!

They offer a extensive loose leaf tea choices.

Due to the intense heat of a Florida Summer outside,

loving hubby and I chose ice tea instead.

We fully intend going back a lot to sample the hot teas and try all the food.

Terry had Peach tea and I had organic Green.

Both were delicious.

Here we are enjoying our tea!

Remember I said we were "hungry" and at first I thought a tea room would not work.

What I especially loved about Tabitha's Tea

is it has the lovely atmosphere of a tea room, yet without the extreme fussiness

that would make a man uncomfortable.

Yes I know loving hubby never cares, he just enjoys our times together, but

just saying......for other men! lol

Look at that sandwich!

Terry chose one of their Artisan sandwiches: Prine Philip

Thinly sliced honey ham piled high with melted swiss and fig mustard!

I chose another artisan sandwich: Princess Di

Pure white breast of turkey with crisp apples, jellied cranberry and mayonnaise.

Both of us also had a refreshing watermelon salad

sprinkled with a bit of cheese and fresh mint.

There is also several salads, soup, quiche and scones.

No tea room is complete without a scone!

In order to enjoy our scones with devonshire cream we each took half our

sandwich home with us, they were huge and delicious!

The scones were chocolate chip and fig.

The only problem we wished we had thought to take some additional scones

home with us.

Was enjoying the food so much, totally forgot to take a picture of the scones!

To those of you in the Tampa Bay area, this is a great place for a girl's day out,

a birthday party or special occassion party.

Men this would make a wonderful "date night" for that special lady in your life.

Tabitha's Tea

2052 Badlands Drive

Brandon, Florida 33511

813 438-8901

Brandon Crossroads Shopping Plaza

Full Service Tea Room

and Restaurant

Tuesday-Sunday

11am-6pm

http://www.tabithastea.com/

info@tabithastea.com

Hope you enjoyed sharing our tea room experience with us today.

Next time we go we are having full tea!

Probably after Terry's recovery from knee surgery in July.

Mercies

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not

consumed, because His compassion

fail not.

They are new every morning.

Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Lamentations 3: 22-24

In honor of Father's Day and the

memory of my beloved father:

Dad and I, 1960, camping in the Adirondacks of NY State

Mom was taking the picture.

Never a day goes by that I don't thank the Lord

you were my father.

You were and always will be my hero.

I love you dad.

I am linking with Ginger and Charlotte

for

Spiritual Sundays

at

http://bloggerspirit.blogspot.com/

Special Friends at the Beach

Happy Wednesday!

I'd like to introduce you to special friends I am always

happy to see when I get back to Daytona Beach Shores.

I have shown two differnt views of each of my friends,

close up and from a distance so you can see where they were

coming from.

Sometimes people won't allow us to "see" or "know" the real person and where they are "coming from".

HE is able to give us the "bigger picture" in dealing

with fragile human beings.

As you look at these soothing pictures, you might think of

someone you need to pray about, someone who you need to ask

HIM to show the "bigger picture" of their life......

25 Years Ago Today

"In everything you are enriched by Him"

(1 Cor 1:5)

Good morning,

This is my first time on Spiritual Sundays.

25 years ago today I borded a plane with my

three young children 5, 10 and 12 to fly from

Fort Lauderdale Fl to Albany, NY to see my parents

for summer vacation.

Life was so good!

On that plane, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean,

I lost my hearing.

I could not understand my children and my son's hotwheels sounded

like bombs going off when he shot them across the floor in the airport.

On August 6, 1986 the specialist told me to "learn to live" with deafness. I was 39.

Sometime in the weeks that followed I found myself sitting on

the bedroom floor, holding a full bottle of tylenol and a glass of tea.

I poured them into my hand and cryed...

I could not live like this.

I could not be the mother I had been.

I could not stand the "smoothered in cotton" silence and the

"sonic blip" type noise at very close range was not much better if I used my now "useless" hearing aid.

I had no strength to keep trying to live in this terror of deafness in the hearing world I knew and loved.

Before I could take even one tylenol, I felt HIS hand in mine.

I heard HIS voice.

"Your children need their deaf mother, more than they need to be without you".

I have been holding HIS hand every day since.

Days after this, I wrote this poem:

Jesus how I thank you for all the pain I feel,

for all the tears and heartache, and knowing you are
REAL.

I was so tired, I couldn't take it anymore,

You said, "child that is what I died for".

You took the pieces of a shattered, broken dream

And rearranged my life, where Jesus resigns supreme.

Jesus how I thank you for all the pain I feel

For all the tears and heartache and knowing you are

REAL

Let me reach out to others

and show them of your Grace.

Let me love the hurting

Until I see you face to face.

I do not choose to question the burden I must bear,

Only do I know my Jesus loves and cares.

Jesus how I thank you for all the pain I feel,

For all the tears and heartache and knowing you are
REAL.

written by Lynn Kreizl 1986

I prayed before writing this as I know it is so long. I did not

even realize the date, until HE told me to look.

My prayer is that I was meant to share this on the 25th

anniversary of one of the greatest blessings of my

life in that although I will always be deaf, I NEVER

stopped hearing HIS voice.

*I work at "hearing" now with a cochlear implant done in 1999*

Will never be perfect hearing but I have been so

blessed by the this miracle of technology.

However, more than ever I still hold HIS hand.

Thank you for allowing me to share today.

I am joining with

www.bloggerspirit.blogspot.com/

Fishing Piers and Foggy mornings

Daytona Beach Shores

has a special place in my heart due to being on our

honeymoon there.

I love, love, love the hard packed sand beach.

Taking long walks in the early mornings.

Like people, the beach has many moods.

My photos today will show a "moody", "wild" beach.

My favorite kind to take a long, long walk.....

come back to our hotel, have coffee and snuggle

with loving hubby.

Today the wild waves take over the beach.

The mist and light fog shrouds the beauty of the sunrise.

I walk down the beach, away from the towering hotels.

Toward the fishing pier.

On this particular morning there are more people

in the restaurant on the pier than

standing outside enticing the fish to bait their hooks.

This is a morning for hot coffee....

Either from a steel thermos or basic white china cup in a

warm restaurant.

The wildness of the beach on a morning like this

mirrors my passion for life.... 

My passion to explore small towns, mountains, lakes, streams,

oceans on both coasts, taking country roads

along the way......

My passion to uncover the simple beauty of nature,

His blessings tucked away in the everyday events of life.

Having lost the ability to hear normally, almost

25 years ago, my passion for showcasing beauty with

my camera has bloomed into my very passionate hobby.

Foggy mornings cloak me in a cocoon of dreams..

 I find fog romantic, mysterious...

softening the hardness of life.

Out of the mist comes renewed creativity,

passion, dreams, hope.

This is Daytona Beach Shores on a "moody" day!

Tomorrow we will meet some of my special friends

who love the beach as much as I do.

Pour a cup of coffee, pull up a chair.....

please join me then.

Have a blessed Sunday.