I have time for a tea moment. In fact I have my tea here right now. Nothing special, just highly caffeinated. I talked to my aunt on the phone until 11:30 last night! I just meant to talk for 30 minutes or so, and two hours later it was me begging to go to bed. lol

So I'm running on empty right now.

I just had a cup of English Breakfast. I have to go to work in fifteen minutes and i have been looking at my favorite forums, Kitchens, Home Decorating and The Kitchen Table.
I am in the North East and we have had a mild winter. Only two real snow falls.
Lavender, what kind of farm do you have?
Mati I hear what you are saying about talking longer than expected. If i call a cousin of mine, I have to plan on at least two hours!

Marti- I know what you mean! When I lived in Seattle (long ago) my mom and I would talk on the phone, all the time. It was never a quick conversation, no matter what we had planned! LOL

Ellendi- We live on my husband's grandparents' farm. It used to be 320 acres, with half going to my husband's dad and half to his aunt. When we moved out here, we sold half to her (long story) and kept the 80 acres. She sold everything last spring, so the 80 acres is all that's left...but it has the old farmhouse and the best views, IMHO.

It used to be mostly wheat and hay (for the animals) and they raised cows, horses, pigs, etc. Since we moved out, we have our horses (pets) and grow a little hay. It's mainly pasture for the horses and a pretty creek area, which the birds, frogs, and insects love! They make gardening so much easier since all the local wildlife seem to keep the 'bad' bugs, in check.

Probably more than you wanted to know, but thanks for asking :)

Ever since Lass began the tea posts, I've been having mine pretty regularly at 3pm in the afternoon most every day. Feels good to have the tea things out and in use again, except for the washing up; and how many times do I forget I've used loose tea and put the pot and all into the dish water? Ugh. Instead of tossing the leftover leaves off the back porch I should walk a bit further and spread them on the roses. I think someone said used tea leaves were good for roses? I've been drinking Yorkshire and Yorkshire Gold, but today I think I'll have Lady Grey for a nice change. I also made a P/A upside down cake the other day and have only one piece left! It turned out so good.

Bought Cup and Saucer Vine seed to start indoors but I'm unsure if I'll have success. So I emailed my favorite nursery where I used to buy the plants and asked (sort of begged) if they were going to offer any this year. Got a reply that they "hope to". Hooray.

I think it's really cold today. Tonight I'm going to a concert featuring Nordic fiddling, something different. A friend will drive to my house and I'll drive us to the concert. We're meeting two other friends there.

I'm having a cup right now -- Pu-erh. My daughter introduced me to it; she brought it back from a tea shop in Montreal as a birthday gift two years ago. A little hard to track down, but well worth the trouble.

Snow is melting off the roof and the neighborhood cat is wandering through our yard, sending my cats crazy. Both my husband and I are eager to get out and start cleaning up the yard ... but it's only March and I'm sure New England has more snow in store for us.

So I'll settle back with a cuppa, enjoy my sunny window, and ignore the dust bunnies I could be cleaning up.

Chibimimi, it actually sounds lovely to be sitting at the window with a cup of tea and watching the snow melt and drip off the roof.

Hi Everyone
It was COLD this morning.
Having a cup of Indian tea(Wagh Bakri) and trying to decide if I need to cook dinner or will a large Greek salad suffice. Maybe salad and an smoked salmon omelette...

Schoolhouse: can you post the upside down cake recipe ? Once I get my kitchen back I'm going to try it. thanks

Imagine!!! I had the decaf rooibus tea, and think that the latest novel in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series (Precious drinks the bush tea, rooibus) is due to be shipped in April. Not long to wait. It will be the 13th book in the series.

Plus, this week I am watching the first pair of bluebirds set up housekeeping in my garden, and I saw a female hummer sitting on my cable running to the house. There are so many birds cruising through the back yard that it looks like Times Square on New Years Eve! How delightful.

EATREALFood, I love different teas, so I shall look for that Indian tea.

While I was away for several days, my babysitter must have taught my African Grey to say "Cool..." because he has been doing it ALL DAY LONG. In his practice voice first, and now, he is just repeating it time and again. It is so funny to hear him repeating things in Hal's voice. Yeah, he usually uses my voice, my DH, my brother, and now the fourth voice, with the words that Hal says to him, like, "Hey big bird," and "Cool," and I know he is working on the other words as well. It is a delight to have a companion who talks to you.

And, I'm watching my HOSTA GROWING LIKE CRAZY. You can see both the backyard birds and the Alabama Garden 2012 at the link I'll give below. Lots of other pics as well, but don't figure you have the time or interest in THAT many pictures!
Spring is here, just a little bit of coolness in the air, but I have a sore throat due to the pollen from the blooming pine trees. Yellow pollen is all over everything.

Here is a link that might be useful: MoccasinLanding Webshots Albums

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Topping:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 20oz. can pineapple slices
Maraschino cherries

Cake:
1 pkg. Yellow Cake Mix
1 pkg.(3.4oz.) of vanilla pudding and pie filling
4 large eggs
1 cup water ( I use the juice from the can of P/A)
1/2 cup oil

Bkg.Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. For topping, melt butter over low heat in a 12" cast-iron skillet or skillet with oven-proof handle. Remove from heat. Stir in brown sugar. Spread to cover bottom of skillet. Arrange pineapple slices,cherries in skillet. Set aside.
3. For cake, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water(juice), and oil in large mixing bowl. Beat at med. seed for 2 min. Pour batter evenly over fruit in skillet.
4. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until toothpick in center comes out clean. Invert onto serving plate.

Hi, I'm a little late to the party, did y'all have pineapple upside down cake without me? Haven't made this for ages, must give it a try!

Our weather here in Texas is springlike, too much so, hope it's not a harbinger of things to come, like last summer. My trees are in bloom, bulbs are done blooming, time to get the garden cleaned up. I may take the pickup over to the nursery and pick up a yard of mulch and get started. It used to be that 2 yards would cover everything I had, now it's more like 6 to 8 yards total.

We're still in the process of getting our little house painted inside and out, tiling, bathrooms updated, and now my husband has decided we need to enclose our patio with glass windows, which I didn't like at first, but know I'll probably love it!

I haven't been over on this side of the forum for a while, but know LL from the gardening forum!

Schoolhouse- Lady Grey sounds very nice...as does the pineapple upside down cake! :)

Chibimimi- That's an interesting sounding tea. We've been watching snow melt, too...but it's finally gone and today is sunny and supposed to be 51 degrees! Of course, rain all next week, but nice for now.

EAT- Greek salad and smoked salmon omelette? Yummy! Do you have any recipes to share? LOL

ML- Nice photos! Your birds are so neat...and must be so much fun, especially since they talk! I can only imagine if my horses could do that :)

Ogrose- Never too late to join the party. I'm having tea right now, wishing I had anything blooming! We might see daffodils by the end of the month...do you have any pictures? I'd love to see your beautiful garden!

Your bulbs are already done? My daffs look great right now. Some are done, but most are in full bloom.

And the bluebonnet gods finally smiled on me and I have about 15 plants this year. I spread seed every fall and plant new ones every spring and for years I've only had one plant come up.

Marti- Congrats on the bluebonnets! They sound beautiful.

Yesterday, it was finally warm enough (and not so muddy) that I could walk out in the pasture and down to the creek. It was so pretty! There are little water falls this time of year, with the spring runoff. And, the ducks are coming back...we had two fly over yesterday...and a meadowlark! I love spring :)

Marti, the daffodils were one of the first plants I got when we moved into our house 40 years ago; I suspect they are the early bloomers. This Fall I plan to get more, will get the type that does well in Texas. For some reason I HATE to plant bulbs, it just bores me to death, but always love the results! Maybe with my soil so much better it will go better.

Congrats on your bluebonnets - they are so pretty. Think I'll try that this Fall. Do you have to scarify the seeds?

GAWD screw the tea where is the whiskey. I have had a long hard week.I might be sober by Monday.

Shades- LOL!!! Now, falling on floor...still LOL :)

I know the feeling, Shades- I'm enjoying an adult beverage right now.

One of the first things I planted at our new place was 2 daffodils. That's right- two. The little church I visit up there had a sermon which related to daffodil bulbs, so each person got one in a little kit with fertilizer and instructions. I wasn't going to take one, but the cutest little boy ran up and was SO excited to give me one! Then folks I insisted I take two; one for me and one for my wife. In the spirit (pun intended) of the thing I felt obligated to plant them. We visited in February, and they were up and had buds. Alas, we weren't there for the actual flowers, but I was still excited. Two down; about 500 to go. I want to naturalize them all over the place.

That is a great story Jay.I hope my hands are up to gardening again this coming summer. I really would like to plant more bulbs.We had very little snow but where the majority of the bulbs are planted it is still about a foot deep. Slide off the roof snow.

ogrose, no I didn't scarify the seeds. I don't know if the new ones came up from seed, or if it was scarified, but I have read that it needs to be done. If the lawnmower spread the seed from the two last year, they probably were scarified.

Shades, you are so funny. Sorry you had a bad week. Hope you aren't so blotto yet that you can't read this. ;)

"Hope you aren't so blotto yet that you can't read this. ;)"

Only in my dreams Marti. I really do not drink much. Just wish I could. I will have a glass of wine later tonight.I still have a few things I would like to do yet tonight.I am sure my husband would not like me to burn his cookies. LOL

That upside down cake looks yummy.I have not had that in years.

Thanks for the recipe schoolhouse.
LavenderLass : Greek salad: tomatoes, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, green or red peppers, pepperoncini, good olives, sliced sweet onion, chopped watercress(optional) and the best feta you can get your hands on. Serve with grilled pita(I use a cast iron ridged grill pan, just brush pita w/ olive oil)
Smoked salmon omelette: 2 or 4 eggs beaten, when set add smoked salmon, finely chopped scallion and cream cheese or goat cheese. I always make extra and keep in the fridge to have at room temp.(I'm big on Frittata's served any time of day)

Don't forget to chill the white wine to serve w/ this !!!!