Tea for Two

Katie invited me to Tea on Wednesday. She and Andrew were in Salt Lake City for Andrew’s sister’s college graduation on the weekend so they weren’t in town for Mother’s Day. We had a nice time at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle very close to where Katie and Andrew live. We split a high tea tiered tray of goodies plus a breakfast scramble. It was a good combination and enough for both of us with a few leftovers. The tea room was not filled to the brim which was nice. When we were done with our tea time we took a nice stroll at a cemetery in close proximity to the tea room. I’ll share the photos from the cemetery soon.

It did not rain from sunrise on Wednesday which was a nice relief. The sun had a hard time shining through. Maybe on Thursday we’ll get some clear and bright sunshine for a few hours.

November Photo a Day Challenge

Since I’m having a hard time posting one photo-a-day I’ve decided to post days 2 through 8 of Kati’s photo challenge in one post. On November 1st I did post the first challenge prompt, my name starts with here.

November 2nd ~ Number

This is a special number for Dear and I this year. We were married in 1974 so on December 6th we celebrate 40 years of marriage. I thought it was fun that the Seattle Sounders are celebrating their 40th anniversary, too. We celebrated already this year with a trip to England but that won’t stop us from celebrating on the actual day, too.

November 3rd ~ Leaf

We had a very blustery, stormy day on Thursday of this week and I tried to catch a leaf falling. I’m glad this one was facing my camera for a second!

November 4th ~ Brown

This photo was taken at the church that was used in Downton Abbey for the weddings. The little town where some of the filming is done is called Bampton and we had a fun quick visit there reliving some of the scenes.

November 5th ~ Cozy

November 6th ~ Pumpkin

November 7th ~ Friend

November 8th ~ Table

Thank you Kati for the November Photo A Day Challenge.

We woke up to beautiful sunshine today. We had such a blustery day yesterday with a mix of brightness and darkness throughout the day. I managed to to fill a yard waste bin full of leaves in between rain showers. The wind gusts are of course made more leaves fall. Hopefully the dryness will last so we can mow the lawn for the last time till Spring. Looking forward to a weekend at home after being away last weekend.

Have a great weekend y’all!

Gatherning the Moments ~ June

Looking back at June and all that took place around this old house and beyond.

I’m joining Cheryl at Thinking About Home for Gathering the Moments.

Trees came down, firewood cut, patio covers went up, peonies bloomed and were enjoyed, hydrangeas just started to color.

Main floor bathroom renovations began with the gutting process, removing everything to the studs and car deck, adding a new window, adding recessed lights and a fan/heater, replacing the ceiling dry wall.

Visitors came from the South and visitors came from the North. Tours commenced. The Market, Kerry Park, the Troll, Ballard Locks, Ste Michelle Winery, Whidbey Island, Queen Mary Tea Room, and University Village just to name a few destinations visited.

Celebrations in June included a retirement, combined Mother’s Day/Father’s Day dinner, and a wedding in the Portland area.

World Cup fever began and continues!

It’s been a while since I shared a photo of my dear old Pop on my blog. Most every week my sister Lana and niece Melissa join him for dinner at his apartment. This last week my niece Debbee and sister Kathy joined in the fun, too. They are getting real good at taking these selfies. My pop still has his ups and downs with his loneliness but he can still move around well and gets out to his church services and a Bible Study weekly. I appreciate seeing the weekly photos on Facebook since I live so far away…

I have to say that June just flew by this year. July holds many new adventures for us. We are looking forward to a trip to England to celebrate our 40 years of marriage, and when we get back the Bathroom renovation will be completed. What are you looking forward to in July?

All Aboard!

Judy and I decided to pull together a trip to the Seattle area for the Mennonite Girls Can Cook who live in British Columbia. Judy came up with a plan for the 7 B.C. girls to drive to Bellingham, Washington and hop on Amtrak south. It’s hard to corral that many girls and come up with a good date for everyone but we finally did and Wednesday June 25th would be the day. When the day was finally here one of the 7 had to stay home. Life happens…

I made a sign so they couldn’t miss their tour guide and limousine driver for the day. The car the rental agency gave me seemed as big as a limousine. This photo that Bev took catches the big white ~~limousine~~ SUV in the background. Thanks Bev for the photos I’m stealing from you for this post.

Our first stop was the Queen Mary Tea Room near the University of Washington.

We each had a different china pattern on our tea cups.

The food was delicious and presented nicely. We finished up at the tea room and after checking out the Tea Emporium we drove to our 2nd stop of the day, University Village.

“University Village is an open-air lifestyle shopping center which offers a unique formula of locally-owned boutiques and signature national retailers. U Village is a regional destination for home furnishings, popular fashions and unique gift items with a distinct collection of restaurants and eateries.”

We all enjoyed the beautiful flowers that were blooming in hanging planters and large planters throughout the center. We gave ourselves a time limit and we managed not to lose anyone while we were here.

Next stop before our dinner reservations would be my humble home. A couple of the girls had been to my house before but it was new to the rest.

It was fun to have everyone in my home for a quick refreshment and tour.

We stole Dear away from his bathroom renovation work to take a photo of all of us together on our deck steps.

We made dinner reservations at the Beach Cafe on the Edmonds waterfront which was just a hop skip and jump away from the railway station. The girls wouldn’t want to miss the train.

Several of us chose the different fish tacos for our meal while others had shrimp and scampi dishes. We shared a couple desserts just to top everything off with. By this time in our day we were rather beat and forgot to take some photos of our dishes and desserts.

On to the station and our goodbye hugs.

A lovely day from beginning to end.

I’m already making plans for an Island getaway for the next MGCC girls day out.

Here’s our day through Anneliese’s lens.

Tonight Dear and I are meeting up with Josh and Laura to celebrate a late Mother’s Day/Father’s Day meal together. We will also celebrate the U.S.A. advancing to the round of 16 with our 2nd place finish in group G.

Queen Mary Tea Room

Our first stop for our Celebrating Katie day was at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle which is located close to the University of Washington.

The waiter popped by our table and asked if we were celebrating anything special and we said, “Why yes, today is Katie’s birthday”. He asked if she’d like to wear a crown…

We said yes!

A long time friend of ours lives in the neighborhood and was able to join us for breakfast.

Queen Katie and Bridget

Bridget’s sister Jamie was Katie’s Maid of Honor. Jamie has been gone for over a year now on a trip around the world. We talked about Jamie and wondered if she’d be back home by next Christmas. Bridget is going to meet Jamie in New Zealand for several days in February before Jamie heads to South America.

Here’s Jamie at the Yellow Sand Dunes (I think in Southeast Asia?) I ~~borrowed~~ stole this photo without asking. I’ll apologize when she comes home.

Back to the Queen Mary…

The traditional tea sipping shot!

We said farewell to Santa and our breakfast buddy and headed to Destination #2. I’ll share that next week.

Hope everyone’s weekend is going well. So is your tree still up? Are you keeping the decorations up for a few more days or are you putting it all away this weekend?

Celebrating Katie!

Today is Katie’s birthday and we have a full day of festivities planned. Our day is starting with breakfast at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle.

From the the Queen Mary Tea Room we plan on heading to Seattle Center to see the Chihuly Glass and Garden Exhibit. Sounds like we are getting a lot of rain for Katie’s birthday so time will tell if we will walk through the garden. We might just be able to take in the indoor exhibits. I hope to have photos to share next week. After the Chihuly Glass Museum we have a booking for massages and a sugar foot scrub. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Massage Envy happens to be in the same little center that Padria Mediterranean Cafe is in and we’ll pick up take away for dinner. Dear, Katie and I will be joined by Josh, Laura, my sister Lana and her husband Steve, our nephew Caleb with his new bride, Marie. I haven’t thought about a cake…too bad there isn’t a bakery in the same center. Maybe the Queen Mary will have something nice to take away that can stand in as a cake…thank you for listening while I think out loud!

Since we’ll be gone most of the day there really is no time to prepare for company. My house is still kind of messy from the Christmas festivities so it’s nice to be having family in who probably don’t care about the state of things. At least I’ve convinced myself no one will care…

This next photo was from Katie’s birthday just one year ago…

Happy Birthday Dear Katie!

Hope all is well these last few days of 2013 in your world. Hard to believe we’ll have to be training our fingers to grip that pen and write 2014 instead of 2013 so soon!

FFF ~ The Royal Treatment!

Since Friday is the big day my Friday’s Fave Five are all about the Royal Wedding! I know some people are yawning or even mocking the event but I choose to embrace it with hopes and prayers that things will go differently for this young couple and that their marriage will last as long as Queen Elizabeth’s reign. She’s been around a long time people! Make sure and bop over to Susanne’s at Living to Tell the Story to join in the fun of Friday’s Fave Five.

Because you would have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out my five I’ll spell them out for you before you scroll down. 1. Queen Mary Tearoom 2. Tea 3. Rings 4. Pasty 5. Royal Weddings

On Wednesday after booking Katie and Andrew’s wedding venue we decided to have tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room to get in the mood for the upcoming wedding of William and Kate.

The Tea Room is getting ready for the big event and is hosting a viewing party from 1:00 A.M. till 4:00 A.M. They have a special Royal Romance Tea for the occasion and a signature bubbly.

Katie wore her Princess Di ring. Well it’s not really a Princess Di ring but it is very similar and it’s fun to see Princess Di’s ring on Kate Middleton’s finger. Our Katie got her ring several years ago passed down from her Aunt Lana.

We enjoyed Cornish Pasties with salad and a very lovely carrot ginger soup with coconut.

Of course there were souvenirs that you could purchase commemorating the Royal event.

I was tempted to get this mug to commemorate my Royal event this year!

I hope your week was a calm one instead of one filled with panic!

Are you going to watch Prince William and Kate’s wedding? We just gathered up a few of our British souvenirs and set them out for the wedding day. We even included the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Beanie Baby is the Princess Di Bear called Princess.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Feelings Meme ~

I saw this at Susanne’s and since I have to work at being sensitive to my feelings I decided to give it a whirl.

Feelings meme:

Reluctant ~ to get too involved in church activities these days.

Excited ~ to be spending 6 weeks in Seattle this summer.

Worried ~ About whether my first attempt at a cake with fondant frosting is going to turn out for a bridal shower this weekend. :0)

Relieved ~ that I found a couple bills that were missing and paid them.

Wondering: ~ I’m the Happy Wonderer, I wonder about everything!

Certain ~that Jesus lives and I will stand before Him someday.

Cautious ~about over committing.

Happy ~that I have so many loving people in my life.

Love ~every new adventure that comes my way

Adore ~God’s creation

Grateful ~for kind words of encouragement.

Go ahead and find your inner touchy feely and do this meme. After you do let me know so I can come by and get all emotional with you…

Oh and the photo at the top of this post is ellen b in the restroom at the Queen Mary Tea Room. Yep I take pictures everywhere…

ABC Wednesday ~ T is for

T is for Tea Rooms and Tea

The Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle, Washington.

This last weekend my husband and I took a quick trip to our home in Washington. On Sunday my sister Lana (Above the Clouds) and my daughters had reservations for Tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle, Washington. So of course my T is for Tea!

The table settings were beautiful with a different tea cup and saucer for each of us to enjoy.

All the lovely Tea accessories and amazing assortment of Teas. Each of us had our own pot of tea. I had Lavender Earl Grey, Lana had Jack Fruit (a staff favorite), Katie had a Mango blend, and Laura had a Chai blend.

Our Tea food was delicious and plentiful. We started with 3 flavors of sorbet with a butterfly lavender shortbread cookie, Scones, Crumpets, Quiche, Sandwiches, lemon bread, and a variety of sweets. Of course we had clotted cream and jams to go with.

Laura my DIL, Katie my daughter, and my sister Lana G!

On the way home from our tea party we stopped at the Seattle Arboretum and visited the Japanese Gardens so we could see this Japanese Tea house where my daughter Katie is studying the Art of Japanese Tea for one of her University classes.

This is Katie all dressed up for her Art of Japanese Tea Ceremony Class.

The girls had a very lovely afternoon in beautiful Seattle.

For more posts on the letter T visit Mrs. Nesbitt.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

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