Tuesday Cuppa Tea - Sequim Lavender Festival 2014

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea. 

We have been awash in lavender here in Sequim. Last weekend was the 18th annual Sequim Lavender Festival......more of that to come! But that decided my teacup...but it's a mug!

My teacup is English bone china made by Adderley with a bouquet of lavender...

I stocked them at Antiques And Teacups because of our HUGE annual Sequim Lavender Festival and Farm Fair...and I love the quality!

This is this year's poster...there is an artist contest each year for the design, and I love this one!

In honor of the Festival I had a lavender tea in the sunroom...although the sun was not cooperating. As we are coastal, plans for sun are often interrupted by a marine layer....I cut lavender from my lavender bush, and my favorite Twinings Darjeeling tea with the lavender mug and my family Noritake Ravenna china....

This is my lavender chik...a sachet or paperweight from my favorite vendor at the Lavender fair...get ready for lots of lavender photos!

Part of the Lavender Fair brochure/booklet...and below was my favorite quilt at the associated quilt show by Sandy Collins...we get really involved here!

Every year we visit a different lavender farm...usually the day before the opening day when it is less crowded which is easier for my husband...This year it was Jardin du Soleil or Garden of The Sun Lavender Farm...

As you can see...it isn't sunny, and it rained on Festival weekend, but no one really seems to care...

They have a fun gift shop inside with lots of goodies...and then there are 2 street fairs, music, food, a classic car show, Driftwood Artists show and juried Fine Art show...you name it it was there! As well as 20,000 at the dtreet fair...just one of the two fairs...amazing!

So there you are...and it happens every year! W are sort of lavender crazy here! We all landscape with it, even the city does!

So thanks for joining me. This next week I am going to try scheduling a post, because we have a bit of a family reunion going. Both our kids and spouses and 2 of 3 grandsons, age 18 & 23 so we will be really busy!

Below is the linky...please be PATIENT because it is SLOWWWW but will work! Have a great week! Hope I survive the excitement and keep up with the grandsons...sorta! The phone calls & texts have been flying around here!!! Have a great week!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday Cuppa Tea Happy Birthday Prince George Rocky Mountaineer Pt 2

Hell my friends and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea. I am doing this in a bit of a frazzled condition. My dear husband has had problems with atrial fibrillation...a condition he has had for years but occasionally kicks up or has a "break through" as they call it... this week. I think probably because of all the World Cup Soccer excitement and also looking forward to a week with both kids, their spouses and 2 of our 3 adult grandsons, 23 & 18 coming up in a week. It's also our local Annual Lavender Festival weekend, but I'll cover that next week. So....

My teacup and saucer today was made just last year for the birth of Prince George, on July 22, 2013 to William and Kate, Duke and Duchess Of Cambridge...

This is a large, breakfast sized cup and saucer made by Roy Kirkham, England of bone china with the birth information on it...

Roy Kirkham grew out of the dissolution of the potteries in the 1960-1970s and after working at W. Adams in Stoke On Trent opened his own pottery in 1970. It now produces quality bone china with links back to the roots of the area's famous potteries.   Breakfast sized cups are quite popular at the moment. A nice big cuppa....

And the reason for the cup and saucer...the birthday boy! The photos below are from the Duchess Of Cambridge's website....

And this week little George took his first walkies by himself...Happy birthday!

I said on my last post HERE that I would do another part of our trip on the Rocky Mountaineer train round trip Vancouver, BC Canada to Kamloops, Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise.  The last post covered the train itself, here is some of the journey.  We did have afternoon tea every afternoon, but I almost always forgot to take photos!  Some of these were taken from the dome car as we were traveling and are not the best, but...the Rockies were spectacular!

There is some back reflection from the glass...but...

Underneath the dome car was the restaurant car for the Gold Leaf class that we traveled.  It included breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea in the dining room, and dinner at your leisure in the towns we stopped at and spent the night...

The first night we spent at Kamloops, but unfortunately we were late getting in and most of the town businesses were closed. Because the train uses the VIA Rail lines, the goods trains have right of way and we lost about 2 hours on sidings while they trundled past...a postcard of Kamloops...

More of the Rockies...

We next stopped at the town of Banff...

And stayed at the gorgeous Fox Hotel which is luxury log lodge and was really incredible. This is their hot springs pool, but we didn't go in...

Not far away is the famous Banff Springs Fairmont which is so beautiful! We drove up to it....

We then had a day by bus to Lake Louise .....

This is the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise Hotel where we stopped for tea...

The lake is colored like this with glacier silt from the nearby Columbia Ice Fields, our next stop...

We were taken on a ride up into the Ice Field to the Athabascan Glacier for a wander around the glacier with a naturalist. This is my honey...notice his ever present Birkenstocks...even on a glacier...He is 6'3" and loves tires, so had me take this photo....

And here we are back at the Columbia Icefield Interpretive Center...very interesting place!

The area used to be at the edge of the glacier, but it has retreated 2-3 miles in 10 years...Then back on the coach with a stop at one of my favorite places on the trip...Peyto Lake which is a bright turquoise blue because of the mineral content the water flows through to fill the lake. It was gorgeous!!!

We stopped for the night in Jasper...

Which was quite a nice wander-around place.

Then a quick coach back to Banff and the train, taking most of the day, then the train to Vancouver with a night in Kamloops again...

So there you go! It was great fun, and wonderful scenery, but we didn't like the early mornings! Lol!  Lavender Festival next week!

All of the photos are ones I took...I didn't get them all marked with Antiques And Teacups...

Thanks for joining me! Here is the linky for your tea related post...remember it is SLOWWWWWW so be patient! 

An InLinkz Link-up