Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Tulip Time! Tea Friends!

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea for the first one in April! However, I am posting this on Sunday, March 30th which is Mothering Sunday, or Mother's Day in the UK...

My wishes to all my UK friends, family and blog followers. Hope it's been a special day. In honour of this first Mothering Sunday in the life of William and Kate's baby son George, the couple released this photo yesterday by their favorite photographer Jason Bell...

A wonderful photo! I love the way George is focused on their dog Lupo. Happy first Mothering Sunday Kate!

Back to Tuesday Cuppa Tea!  Although our Tulips are still budding, not flowering because of the record setting winter of rain we have had...leading to the terrible mudslide in Oso, Washington...please continue to pray for the families and rescue workers are the work continues...last year at this time we went to Butchart Gardens to see the gardens in spring. I came upon a few photos as I was sorting photos...

And that led me to my unusual...for me...choice of teacup today. It's a more modern form and material from the usual bone china teacups, but tea cup it still is, albeit in stoneware by Franciscan, USA in a pattern called Tulup Time...

The Tulip Time pattern was made between 1963 and 1973. Franciscan is an unusual company, in that it started in the USA and was actually moved to the UK in 1983 while under the ownership of Wedgwood. In 189 Wedgwood became Waterford Wedgwood, and in 2009 WWRD or, Wedgwood Waterford Royal Doulton, which continues to make several of the Franciscan patterns, although not in the UK.  Collectors look for the USA made pieces.

Definitely a more substantial feel than the bone china, but so evocative of the times...Click on the photos for more info at Antiques And Teacups...

I want to thank several of my tea blogging friends who sent me a postcard during their recent tea meet up in Berea, KY. I was so touched that they took the time to do that! Here is the back of the postcard, followed by the links to their accounts of the tea...

Angela at Tea with Friends
Linda at Friendship Tea
Phyllis at Relevant Tea Leaf
Nancy at Rosemary's Sampler

So to these and you, my other tea friends...I raise my cuppa with a cookie from Nadia at My Little Bakery on this lovely spring day...and share with you a sign I took a photo of in England a few years ago that made me laugh, and is so appropriate for us here in Washington state as well as England!  Yep...we are slippery when wet...Cheers!

Below is the linky for your tea post for Tuesday Cuppa Tea and a place for comments...which I just love! Then a list of some of the blogs I am joining...although there are many more. Spring cleaning has GOT to include a blog roll refreshing!!!  When you link, please be patient...sometimes it takes a few minutes to get the Linky to respond correctly, which seems to depend on how many links it is doing for blogs at the same time. IT'll get there!

Just a mention...Antiques And Teacups is having a 15% Off SPRING coupon sale!

Common Ground ~ http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com

Monday Marketplace

Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Teatime Tuesday

Celia ~ http://www.attitudeivlife.blogspot.com/

Tea With Celia

Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
Victoria - A Return to Loveliness

Martha~  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ 

Tea On Tuesday
Miss Kathy ~http://www.thewritersreverie.com/

Tuesday Tea

Beth ~ http://agardenersart.blogspot.com/

Tea Cup Tuesday

 Jocelyn ~ http://justalittlesouthernhospitality.blogspot.com/

Tea On Tuesday

Michelle ~ http://www.finchrest.com/

Tea On Tuesday

Lady B & Dame Ruthie ~ http://ladybstimefortea.blogspot.com/

Time For Tea

Nancy ~ http://twocottagesandtea.blogspot.com/

Tuesday Tea Time

Phyllis ~ http://www.relevanttealeaf.blogspot.com/

Tea On Tuesday

Bernideen’s ~ http://blog.bernideens.com/

Tea In The Garden Tuesday

Judith ~ http://lavendercottagegardening.blogspot.ca/

Lavender Cottage  Tea Time

Pam ~http://texas-tea-party.blogspot.com/

Tea In Texas

Pamela ~ http://playingwithmycamera.blogspot.ca/

Playing With My Camera Teatime           

Beverley ~ http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

Tuesday Blog Shop

Shawn ~ http://poetryinapotoftea.blogspot.com/

Poetry In A Pot Of Tea

 Wanda Lee ~ http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/

Tuesday And Wednesday Tea

 Ivy And Elephants ~http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/

What’s It Wednesday                                           

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Home On Wednesday

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Violets And Red Coats

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea!

The sun is out and spring is indeed peeking out here...we have finally had our violets open below the pine tree in the front yard...a favorite sign of approaching spring...as the Daffodils and Tulips are just green leaves poking up so far...

Violets stand for faithfulness in the Victorian Language Of The Flowers...

And so my choice of teacups for Tuesday Cuppa Tea today...

I found this Hammersley, England bone china Victorian Violets teacup from the 1930s and was thrilled. I love the delicacy of the Hammersley china...

And I love the pretty shape and gold trim. I can almost smell the elusive scent...

Teacup available at Antiques And Teacups...just click on the photos...

William Wordsworth, famous English poet who lived from 1770 to 1850 and spent years around the Lakes District in Dove Cottage wrote this...

The Lost Love

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove:

A maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love.

A violet by a mossy stone

Half-hidden from the eye!

Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and, oh,

The difference to me!

Changing directions, I posted last week an old photo I found of my aunt Ruth, whom I was named for on our 8 month trip to Europe when I was 20. I am beginning to sort through photos from boxes we moved here 7 years ago and haven't opened since. The 7th year is the Year Of Jubilee...so they are getting opened and set free! One of the fun things I found was photos of my husband's Coldstream Queen's Guards Regiment. 

The Coldstream Guards, if you have followed my blog for long, are the guards in the bearskins that find the guard at Buckingham Palace and other Royal residences.  We didn't think we had any photos, but this one turned up of his old regiment when it finished it's training....

That's my honey in the middle at 22. When he emigrated to Canada and subsequently to the US where I met him, the photos were left with his Mom, and when she passed away, to his older sister who brought this with her when she came on a visit years ago.

What we don't have, is a photo of him in his red dress tunic and bearskin shako...sigh...

I took this photo at the Guards Museum in Green Park, just a few blocks from Buckingham Palace...where a brother Coldstream Guard was on sentry duty. There are 5 Guard units in the Brigade Of Guards, among whom the Coldstream Guards is one unit.

The Guards do much more than ceremonial guard duty, and are actually a crack infantry regiment. My husband's unit spent 8 months in Duselldorff, Germany during the Suez Canal crisis in the 1950s, although it ended before he was deployed to the Gulf. Coldstreamers...or Chilly Rivers, as they are affectionately called...have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is a photo of Queen Elizabeth II reviewing the Coldstream Guards unit...

This is his cap badge and uniform patch. The gold and silver threads of the patch have tarnished, but the sunlight made them bright again!  So we at least have some momentos!

So I hope you are enjoying spring, and the spring cleaning it fosters, as new life pushes forth and new growth follows. May you grow in Grace!

Below is the linky for your tea related posts. Also a list of some of the blogs I am joining. I love hearing from you and visiting your wonderful blogs!

Common Ground ~ http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com

Monday Marketplace

Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
Teacup Tuesday

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Teatime Tuesday

Celia ~ http://www.attitudeivlife.blogspot.com/

Tea With Celia

Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
Victoria - A Return to Loveliness

Martha~  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ 

Tea On Tuesday
Miss Kathy ~http://www.thewritersreverie.com/

Tuesday Tea

Beth ~ http://agardenersart.blogspot.com/

Tea Cup Tuesday

 Jocelyn ~ http://justalittlesouthernhospitality.blogspot.com/

Tea On Tuesday

Michelle ~ http://www.finchrest.com/

Tea On Tuesday

Lady B & Dame Ruthie ~ http://ladybstimefortea.blogspot.com/

Time For Tea

Nancy ~ http://twocottagesandtea.blogspot.com/

Tuesday Tea Time

Phyllis ~ http://www.relevanttealeaf.blogspot.com/

Tea On Tuesday

Bernideen’s ~ http://blog.bernideens.com/

Tea In The Garden Tuesday

Judith ~ http://lavendercottagegardening.blogspot.ca/

Lavender Cottage  Tea Time

Pam ~http://texas-tea-party.blogspot.com/

Tea In Texas

Pamela ~ http://playingwithmycamera.blogspot.ca/

Playing With My Camera Teatime           

Beverley ~ http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

Tuesday Blog Shop

Shawn ~ http://poetryinapotoftea.blogspot.com/

Poetry In A Pot Of Tea

 Ivy And Elephants ~http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/

What’s It Wednesday                                           

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Home On Wednesday

An InLinkz Link-up

Hooray! First Day Of Spring!

Just want to wish you all a happy first day of spring! And for those of you in the hard-hit midwest and east, I know it can't come too soon!

We here in Washington state have just broken all-time rain records. We have moss growing between our toes!

Most needed fashion statement here this year??? Wellington Boots...or as they are lovingly called in England...Wellies! But...spring is coming! Judith of Lavender Cottage posted this lovely photo of some of my favorite spring flowers...

Muscari, or Grape Hyacinths and Creeping Phlox. Lovely!  I even have a teacup pattern called Phlox...

And another image from Shabby In Love on Facebook, is a lovely collage of Forget-Me-Nots...

So I am ready...bring it on! Kleenex in hand...allergies, you know, but I don't care! Have a lovely first day of spring and enjoy the beauty of the season!

Cleaning Out Old Photos, Vintage Finds

Hi there! I am a happy camper! Had another tech savvy friend work on the blog. He fixed the sidebars, which have been temperamental, got Networked Blogs to behave and finally, after a year...got the Google Friend Connect up and running again. It hasn't worked since the blog scraping debacle a year ago. WooHoo!!

And at home...I am beginning to clean out and organize some old photo boxes, and found this photo:

This is vintage all right! This is myself on the left at age 20 with my aunt Ruth, whom I was named after, in 1967 coming down from the Temple of Dionysos on the Acropolis in Athens Greece. My aunt, a school administration who was divorced...a scandal! He was cheating on her! the year I was born, took me with her for 8 months in Europe for her sabbatical that year. That was wonderful! And boy, was it hot in Athens in August!  I will be sharing other photos, but this is the first of my favorites I located.

Changing gears, I wanted to share some wonderful teacups I found recently, that will be making their way to Antiques And Teacups.

This was such a wonderful spring group, I couldn't resist! The pink one is perfect for Pink Saturday!

Another pink spring beauty! So I have my pink on for Pink Saturday, vintage for Vintage Thingie Thursday and a few more! Just a short post really, to share my happiness about the blog being fixed. 

And I have some scones for tea as well! Life is good!  Now if I can only find my Greek worry beads I brought home as a souvenir...

I am joining:

Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

Home On Wednesday

 Coloradolady  ~ http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/

Vintage Thingie Thursday

 Mrs. Olson ~  http://jannolson.blogspot.com/

Share Your Cup Thursday

Lady Linda ~ http://ladylindateacup.blogspot.com/

Tea Time Thursday

Beverley ~ http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

Pink Saturday