Time Flies When You're Having Fun....

What happened? This morning as I was sitting at the table drinking my morning cup of coffee (yes, I love coffee as well) and checking any messages on my laptop, my daughter looked across the table at me from where she was sitting at her laptop with her cup of coffee ( she loves it as well also) and said, "Mom, you haven't done any blogging for some time. I think that you need to put pictures of your teapots up on your blog and talk about them."

!!!

I informed her that I had done that, but she told me that since I had quite a few new ones, they should have a little spotlight too.

Okay. That makes sense.

So in the coming episodes, I will be posting some more pictures of teapots and tea cups and if you are bored with that, well, you don't have to look... but it would be nice if you did.......

Where, oh where has Pat been all these months??? Well. I haven't been travelling around the world, if that's what you're thinking !! No, I have been right here at home enjoying the company of my family. As you know, Matt, Marca, and Gracie came home just before Christmas last year, having finished with their international experience for a while. Matt had some time before starting his clinical rotations and Marca was offered a job at Mt. Pisgah Academy, where they both used to teach. So guess who had daily "dates" with Gracie? Yep, me. What a wonderful time it has been to have them home.

Graice has grown so much - not just taller (although she certainly has done that) - but in her mannerisms and personality. She has such a lovely little way about her and is very polite but also very astute at the same time. And now the questions. She is beginning to ask the questions about how things work and why and what does this word mean and who are these people and how are they related to us and just exactly what is a cousin, niece, nephew, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and what in the world is a second cousin ??? She still has some moments that, for all her maturity, she still isn't much older than a baby. She sometimes can settle for no one but her Mommy and no amount of comfort will help. But then she will turn around and comfort you if you appear down or if you don't feel good. She is charming in her little mannerisms and the way that she talks to you and she likes to have her Gramsy's attention as much as she can get it.

Hello again! Another beautiful morning in North Carolina! It is only 14 degrees outside this morning. I think it has warmed up some. Yesterday and the day before it snowed and was in the teens temp-wise and so all the schools were closed and there was hardly anyone on the road when we went out to the store. They called it a snow day but the snow looked like a powdered sugarsprinkling on a cake or something. Really heavy snow, guys! I think that I might have even been able to pick out the individual snowflakes in the yard! There was, however, heavy frost on the road and at times it was a bit slick, not too bad though. The odd thing was that even though we were out at 1:00pm, the road looked like it wasn't even affected by the cars traveling on it. I guess that I've never seen that kind of thing - no snow on the ground but the roads frozen like that. Very dry. Very white. Very cold. Very wierd!

Happy New Year! I know that we are well into this first month, but Happy New Year, anyway!

We are starting out the new year with a bang. After a few short bouts of cold weather mixed in with some warm days, we hit a new low here in the South with freezing temperatures. This morning the temp was 6 degrees out. I kid you not!!! And the wind chill was -6 degrees! Now, that's c-c-cold!!! Remember, this is the South. And so , of course, we have no water. Oh, yea. I'm so excited. Woo-hoo. Apparently, it is just our house. This really bites! Now I have been in some cold weather before and I have had pipes freeze , but I guess I didn't expect this down here. There is more to all this than just this freeze, but I refuse to elaborate more. I will not let it ruin my fairly good mood!
Gracie continues to delight and raise our spirits if they tend to flag a bit. She just came in with a plastic bowl on her head and introduced herself as "Charles". She then asked if she could watch "The Muppet Movie". Ah, childhood! You are allowed to be silly as a child and everyone thinks that you are precocious and funny! When you get older, they want to take you to the psychiatrist!
You know, I started this entry back much closer to the beginning of the year but at the time, as I was getting ready to post it, a message popped up that informed me that the sight could not publish and that I would most likely lose the entry. Imagine my surprise when I logged on tonight and found that it had been saved! Oh well! At least the weather has warmed up a bit! Today was in the 60's! How's that for change? The night before last the water froze in the pipes for the 3rd time within a week. Tonight it is 50 degrees out. I give up.

It has been a while since I have written again and I have absolutely no excuse. Sorry. That's it. Just sorry....

Anyway, the seasons have begun to show their true colors and I thought that a couple of pictures of my front yard might just show how beautiful it is in the fall here in North Carolina. These were taken at the very beginning of the color turn and I didn't seem to have my camera handy when I saw more developed color around here so these will have to do.

I think that there is a certain specific time when the colors really appeal to me the most and this may be it. I love to see the delicate spray of color among the varied greens of summer when things just start to get really serious. However, later, when the hillsides seem to be on fire with yellows, reds, and oranges, it can take your breath away. The other day, Rose and I took a little drive after school and came upon an absolutely magical meadow where the surrounding trees were so very brilliant with color and the opening in the hills gave an etherial view of the valley beyond with Mt. Pisgah in the distance. We were feeling a bit of envy for the people who had homes in that rather secluded area.


The temperature has dropped and the wind has come up and so more and more we are finding the leaves now turning to brown and rust and falling on the ground with much greater frequency. I now know what they mean by "winter views" as this is the only time when we get to see the mountains from our house - when there are no leaves on the trees to obstruct the view. Of course, the branches do get in the way somewhat.

Some of our friends have a less obstructed view and are treated to the rampant color of the surrounding trees as well as the entire valley beyond. Must be nice. I will enjoy and have enjoyed my beautiful trees that grace the surrounds of my own little house with color. Every year at this time I am glad that I did not cut down all the trees in my yard! I don't like raking the leaves and trying to find a place to take them but then, there is this compensation.

I am drinking my PG Tips using this lovely little set this morning. The teapot is actually larger than it looks in the picture: it was sitting back a ways so I could get it all in.

This little tea set has simple lines but is a very special set to me. This is the one that started the great inside joke in my family about the elusive teapot. Actually, it wasn't this set, it was the trip we were on at the time. Some people think that one teapot is enough for a person but I just love them. So I collect them. You all know that, right? The first time I went to England, I was with Marca and Matt and I wanted to get a tea set from there since England is, of course, known for it's love of tea. (I think I may have mentioned that before.) Anyway, perfect souvenir, don't you agree? So we went everywhere that we thought you could find a teapot in London. We were on our way to Harrod's to see this incredible store and it hit us that this was where we should look! (ya think?) So we looked and we looked and they had all kinds of wonderful tea sets there and it was very hard to decide. They were all very beautiful but they were not quite what I wanted. I was looking for something that said ENGLAND to me and when I was downstairs in the area where they had some items that I'm assuming were overstocked, I found it. There it was - the one I wanted.

Now came the hard part. Did I want it in blue, Harrod's green, or cream? I went for the blue, of course. I've never been sorry I picked the blue, but because they were marked down, I could have gotten the dark green as well. They say hindsight is better than foresight; I guess they (whoever they are) are right.

Matt was rather shocked. He was sure that I would pick one of the beautiful sets upstairs and they were beautiful, but, I could probably get those anywhere. BUT ( and this is a big point) where would I find one that said Harrod's on it that didn't look like a souvenir but was in a sense. So I bought it and had it shipped home. Now that is where the expense came in. It was all worth it, though. Even all the teasing I have taken since then. And, by the way, no one minds if on our travels Mom goes looking for another teapot. I just have to be aware that there will be a bit of good-natured ribbing whenever we see one. It's all in good fun.

And now you know the story behind the "elusive perfect teapot" idea.

This is one of the sets that I got over in England. This is from Whittards of Chelsea and is their swirl pattern. All those swirls are hand-painted; can you believe it? This set did not have a sugar bowl or creamer - at least that I ever saw - and I haven't been able to find one online either. I have a sneaky suspicion that this set is also retired as they were selling it out when I was there last fall. But I could be wrong on that. Anyway, the teapot holds about 6 cups and the cup holds about a cup. Nice serving ot tea, I think. My daughter got me the teapot last fall for my birthday on one of our jaunts to the tea shop in Newcastle, where they were living at the time, and I bought the cups. I love using this set. I do use it often and each time I do, I remember our good times over there and look forward to many more "tea parties" when they get home!

What kind of tea? A good English Breakfast or PG Tips, of course !!!