Missing Pieces

It’s an interesting phenomena but when the weather is blustery our internet goes into hiding somewhere.

Since I can’t upload the photos I wanted for a post today I’ll go back and post these photos that I uploaded on kinder internet days that I haven’t shared yet. Easter Decor was at a minimum during this Pandemic. Easter was celebrated well but not with decor.

Христос воскрес! Khristos voskrese! Christ is Risen!

воистину воскрес! Voistinu Voskrese! Truly He is Risen!

Our Easter message will always be that Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed in English and Russian!

The cutest little Easter Bunny. The photos our daughter in law shares on Facebook upload with no trouble.

Addy painting our presents for Easter, rocks for our gardens.

Jaymison coming back from the family evening walk down the driveway and back again. I can’t get over how big he looks here!

Still trying to upload my camera photos to no avail. Today I took photos of all that is starting to bloom at our Country Bungalow but the uploads failed. I will keep trying.

Monday we worked outside for most of the day. Dear worked on the shop and I pulled weeds and mowed the front acre. Tuesday I’ll mow the back acres while Dear continues working on the shop. The forecast is for a 70 degree day. Time will tell. How are things in your corner?

Cinco de Mayo lands on this Tuesday and our favorite Mexican Restaurant isn’t open for service inside yet. What an COVID-19 mishap! We won’t be having tacos today or Mexican food for that matter. Once El Ranchito is open again we will celebrate!

Quote of the week from Sunday’s sermon: “Sincerity is not the test of obedience.”

Five

Whether they are Friday’s Fave Five with Susanne or Five on Friday with Amy here are my favorites I’m sharing this week. Some are illustrated with some photos from our time in San Francisco last week.

A quiet week after time away with time to read and pray. (photo from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco)

2. Some fun adventures finding things to decorate a Chinese New Year table in February. I bought some items in San Francisco but when returning home I realized I needed more things to pull the table together. (above photos from Chinatown San Francisco) While shopping at Goodwill I spotted…

…this! Back in 1973 when I was in England I started my china Hope Chest purchases with a tea set from England. Were you in the Hope Chest era? The pattern is Moss Rose by Royal Albert. After I was married Dear and I completed my set with a dinner service for 12 that we drove into Canada to buy. When I saw this smaller teapot and trivet at my local Goodwill I grabbed it fast. With my senior discount these pretties cost me $10!

3. Happy find while I was out and about was a Persian Bakery and a Persian restaurant in a strip mall close to our home! Just look at that fresh Barbari bread above! I grew up enjoying Persian cuisine. My parents’ families escaped out of Russia into Iran in the early 30’s. My parents spent their teen and early adult years in Persia and learned to enjoy Persian food and to cook it. My father even learned Farsi while he lived there. I’m looking forward to eating at the restaurant soon.

4. One pot meals! Tomorrow on Mennonite Girls Can Cook I’m sharing the one pot meal I made from these ingredients. Earlier in the week I made Susan’s (My Mother’s Apron Strings) Skillet Lasagna and it was delicious.

5. Since Dear has been working from home we are walking together most days of the week. It rained all night and all day yesterday so we skipped but we are determined to get out on most days and do our loop. Our walk starts on a gradual uphill before we hit the steepest part of the walk and we get our hearts pumping. Then we have another flat spell before we head downhill home. This photo is not from our neighborhood but from a lovely walk we had in England on a trip in 2014. I’m always ready to go back to scenery like this!

Here we are heading into the last weekend of January. Nothing major going on which is nice. Maybe I’ll get around to dusting! What’s up in your neck of the woods?

Birds, Nests, Eggs!

It’s time for Cuisine Kathleen’s Let’s Dish challenge and her theme is Birds~ Nests~ Eggs.

We just had our Women’s Friendship Tea at our church this past Saturday and I happened to have a sweet bird on a nest in a cage as my centerpiece. So timely!

My guests…Susan, Shavonne, Laura, Wilma, Pat, Andra, Judy, Katy, and Katie.

There were a total of 36 tables at our Friendship Tea. It was organized so well with hand made food in our church kitchen. Many of the men and boys in our church volunteered to serve the tables and they poured our tea and made sure we had what we needed throughout the program. There were take home gifts for each of our guests and door prizes, too.

The theme this year was Snapshots: Behind every snapshot there is a story. I will have a few more posts showing the rest of the creative tables and the photo booth opportunities before and after the tea in our church lobby. Here’s a panorama photo of several of the tables in our worship center.

This was the first year since Dear and I have been attending Northshore Baptist Church that I was able to participate in the Friendship Tea. What a wonderful well run event it is.

Katie and my snapshot at one of the photo booth backdrops in the lobby. Stay tuned for many more snapshots from this event.

I’m looking forward to visiting all the posts linked at Kathleen’s Birds~Nests~Eggs challenge.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Easter Revisited

For some of you that visit my blog regularly this will be a repeat. It’s time for Susan’s Tablescape Thursday so I wanted to post my actual Easter table for this week. Were you aware that tulips continue growing even after they are cut and placed in a vase?

I just realized that about all my tulips as I trimmed the stems each day when I added fresh water and they were taller the next day!

My centerpiece is the Traditional Russian Easter Bread (Kulich or Paska), Colored Eggs, and hollow Chocolate Russian Matryoshka dolls.

The china is Royal Albert Moss Rose.

We used our International 1812 Sterling. The stemware and napkin rings are Target clearance. Napkins are from a thrift store and the tablecloth is from Goodwill at $4.99. The runner is also from Goodwill but I forget what I paid.

Our traditional molded sweet cheese spread that is called Seerney Paska in Russian. The XB is for Христос Воскрес (Christos Voskress), Christ is Risen!

We squeezed 12 around the table and had a wonderful time celebrating the Resurrection of Christ!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

I Love Easter Tablescape!

Many tables will be set for your viewing enjoyment so click on over to Between Naps on the Porch to get an eye full and to join in the fun! I’m posting this early because I’m just so excited for Easter!

This is my practice table for our meal on Easter. We will have 10-12 sitting here then but I’m practicing with just 6 settings. I’ll be pulling out a different tablecloth to fit the extended table. My centerpiece on Easter will be the Russian Easter Bread my sister and I will bake on Good Friday. By then I’ll also have real hard boiled and colored eggs for the table with some Easter grass.

I’m pulling out my Royal Albert Moss Rose China for the main course and for dessert I’m using cut glass plates.

My bunnies are announcing the reason for our celebration in Russian! Christ is Risen! Xpucmoc Bockpec Truly He has Risen Воистину воскрес!!

Wish I had my crosses to grace my Easter table but they are still at my condo in California…

Have a Glorious Easter everyone!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Royal Albert Moss Rose