Surreybrooke Garden Tour Get-Together

This month several members of the Take Joy Society met at Surreybrooke for a garden tour and picnic.  Surreybrooke has been in operation since the late 1970s when Nancy Walz began her business at craft fairs selling handmade candles and dried-flower wreaths from homegrown everlasting flowers.  When I moved here in 1981 I made yearly visits as she began to grow her business by selling plants next to her house.  As she expanded her flower beds on their farm I could always go there to get ideas for my garden and buy perennials and annuals you don't usually find at Lowes or Home Depot.  Over the years they have added four greenhouses,  reconstructed salvaged log cabins to house garden-themed merchandise, and built buildings like the Pavilion to host weddings and other events.

The tour started at the Pavilion where we'd have our picnic afterwards. I'd brought along a tablecloth and had small pots of succulents for Edie and Chris from my garden so I was surprised to find the tables were already set with quilted tablecloths and pots of succulents! . . . .

Midsummer's Day

Today is Midsummer's Day.  I wrote about Tasha Tudor's Midsummer's Eve celebration earlier in the month.  Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote about Tasha's festivities also in her book "Simple Abundance," then goes on to tell us how she, herself, celebrates Midsummer's Day. . . .

I wander out into the backyard very early in the morning and pluck a blossom from the garden heavy with dew.  With my fingers, I’ll pat the dew upon my face, for legend has it that any woman who washes her face in the dew of Midsummer’s Day will grow more lovely with the passing year.  Fairy cakes are made for tea, midsummer’s syllabub (a delightful concoction of cider, lemon, berries, and whipped cream) is prepared for a moonlit picnic, and personal dreams are renewed.

I think it's a lovely idea to find reasons to celebrate the seasons.  There was a time when Summer was all about children home for school vacation, finding activities and trips to keep them busy and enrich their young lives.  Now Summer is about enjoying my garden.  Things are growing and therefore my garden must be tended:  weeding, watering, fertilizing, deadheading.  But I also take time to just enjoy it. . . . .the fragrance of Lavender as I harvest it. . . .

The sight of daisies and evening primroses rioting together. . . .

Climbing roses creating bowers over my garden path. . . .

Hearing the high-pitched croak of the frog as I startle him back into the pond when I draw too close. . . .

But I think one of the most joyful beauties of the place where I live is the sun filtering through the tree tops. . . .

Anne Shirley in "Anne of Avonlea" says it best. . . .

I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls sipping off a string. 

May you find Joy in every day!


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Take Joy!

June Celebrations

The Rose is June's flower according to Mary Mason Campbell's "The New England Buttr'ry Shelf Almanac", illustrated by Tasha Tudor.  She tells us that according to Mrs. Burke's book, "The Coloured Language of Flowers", compiled in a much earlier era, that a white rose and red rose together signified unity and that a yellow rose meant jealousy.

Here is her simple recipe for Rosewater. . . .

"Collect a pound of scented rose petals and put them in a heatproof glass, enamel, or pottery pan on the fire.  Cover petals with water and bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 10 minutes.  Strain off the water.  May be used for bathing the face and arms on a warm day--very refreshing.  It is best bottled and kept ice cold in the refrigerator."

My roses are coming into bloom.  I bought this climbing rose in 2014.  This is the first year for it to bloom.  It turns out to have a pinkish hue, which I love. . . .

White Ramber (Felicite et Perpetue)

Eden Climber (Meiviolin)

Rainbow Knockout (Radcor)

Carpet Rose

This is my Mystery Rose that showed up in the middle of my Azalea

One of the many wild roses--this one growing up into the Dogwood to continue the white flowers after the Dogwood is out of bloom

Tasha was very fond of roses.  When she died in 2008 half of her ashes were scattered, as she requested, under her favorite rose bush.  The other half were scattered where one of her Corgi's had been buried.

For Tasha Tudor June was the beginning of summer fun starting with Midsummer's Eve as told in "A Time to Keep". . . .

In "Around the Year" Tasha shares her delicate borders of flowers surrounding summer scenes. . . .

Tasha wrote about celebrating Midsummer's Eve in "The Private World of Tasha Tudor". . . .

"Just for fun, my family invented a religion like the Shakers we called Stillwater.  I'm eldress, and we have a big celebration on Midsummer's Eve.  It's really a state of mind.  Stillwater connotes something very peaceful, you see, life without stress.  Nowadays, people are so jeezled up.  If they took some chamomile tea and spent more time rocking on the porch in the evening listening to the liquid song of the hermit thrush, they might enjoy life more......Life is to be enjoyed, not saddled with.  Do you know that lovely quotation from Fra Giovanni?  He was an old monk from away back who wrote to his patron, 'The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach is joy.  Take joy.'  That's the first commandment of the Stillwater religion.  Joy is there for the taking."

I feel drawn to Tasha's porch. . . .

Photo credit:  Richard Brown

Do you have a porch on which to sit and listen to the birds sing?  A place where you can collect your thoughts and enJOY all your blessings?

How do you celebrate Midsummer's Eve?


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Take Joy!

May Celebrations

Mary Mason Campbell writes in "The New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac," illustrated by Tasha Tudor:  "May Day has been celebrated merrily for many ages, from fertility festivals of the ancient Egyptians, and feasts of the Romans in honor of their goddess Flora, to the Middle Ages when the people of the British Isles danced about Maypoles.  The English decked their villages with flowers and danced in the streets with gay abandon, greatly encouraged by enthusiastic drinking and feasting.  In New England the first settlers, the Pilgrims, did not believe in such pagan festivities, and there was no thought of celebrating May Day until one boisterous Thomas Morton set foot on the shores of Boston Bay.  He and his crew set up a Maypole on May Day 1627, celebrating their arrival with dancing and other raucous revelry.  The Maypole is said to have been a pine tree eighty feet tall wreathed with wild flowers, vines, and ribbons and adorned with poems especially composed for the occasion.  The merriment shocked Governor Bradford and his Puritan followers.  Further celebrations of May Day in New England were abandoned until the nineteenth century when children played at dancing around the Maypole and renewed the old, old custom of filling May Baskets with flowers and candies for their friends."

Tasha Tudor recalls in "A Time to Keep" her family's dancing around the maypole and delivering May Baskets to neighbors. . . .

May was also a time to plant her garden. . . .

A time to finally be out of doors enjoying elevenish parties under the trees. . . .

In Tasha's "Around the Year" she shows us more idyllic scenes from her life and imagination. . . .

I love this time of year because my garden is beginning to blossom.  This year my Lilac bush, which has grown into a tree these past eight years finally has several blooms.  The Dogwood is in full bloom, too. . . .

As are the Azaleas. . . .

May is when my first child was born after waiting ten very long years for him. . . .

Gabriel shares his birthday in May. . . .

In the U.S. we celebrate Mother's Day in May as well.  My mother will have been gone now for 22 Mother's Days this year. . . 

What special occasions do you celebrate in May?

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Take Joy!

Beatrix Potter Tea Party Get-Together

The Take Joy Society members got together today to celebrate Spring with a Beatrix Potter Tea Party!

When everyone arrived they browsed my collection of books by and about Beatrix Potter. . . .

After which lunch was served. . . .

The Menu was mostly from Susan Wittig Albert's "Cottage Tales" website*:

Pea Soup

Cucumber Sandwiches*

Tomato Dill Sandwiches*

Ham Salad Pinwheels

Nutty Cheeseball w/apple slices*

Lemon Lavender Mint Iced Tea

The recipes marked with an asterisk can be found HERE.

The Pea Soup recipes comes from "An English Cottage Year" by Sally Holmes & Tracey Williamson. . . .

At each place setting I put a violet plant in a teacup that was to go home with each member. . . .

We watched a short video about Beatrix Potter that can be found in the extras on the DVD "Miss Potter".  Here is another short biography on Beatrix. . . .

               

Then we made English cottages using cardboard, glue, moss, and plaster, sticks, and pebbles. . . .

We took a break for tea and carrot cupcakes*. . . .

Then resumed working on our cottages.  Here are the ones that were finished before everyone had to leave. . . .

I chose Beatrix Potter as our theme because she was an example of someone who took what gifts she had and shared them with others and in doing so found great joy in the process.  She'd always loved to draw and think up stories and shared them in picture letters to children she knew.  Eventually she thought other children might enjoy them, too, so she endeavored to have them made into a book.   When she couldn't find a publisher she self-published and the rest is history.  This year is the 150th anniversary of her birth (July 28).   She wrote and illustrated 28 books for children, but then went on to become a sheep farmer, raising prize Herdford Sheep.  She is also known for her philanthropy for having donated 4,000 acres of land in the Lake District to the National Trust which millions of people enjoy each year for it's bucolic scenery.

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Take Joy!

April Celebrations

I've chosen this month's recipe from Martha Mason Campbell's "The New England Butt'ry Cookbook"  This is a companion book to the Almanac which Tasha Tudor also illustrated.   Mrs. Campbell writes, "Many years ago, the Easter cake was a graduated four-layer one made just for us by the German baker in town....There were tiny frosting chickens and ducks and lambs, birds and butterflies, an angel or two, and many delicately wrought frosting flowers and vines.  On the very top was a little cottage of cake and frosting with a fence and roses climbing over the door.  The top three layers were carefully removed at the dinner table and put back into the paper cake box.  On the morrow, in turns each year, the children took it to school to share with their classmates.  The family ate the festooned bottom layer.  The baker has long gone and our cake today is not the glorious creation he would have made of it, but we still yellow-frost our lemon sponge Easter Cake and do our best with the decorations.

Tasha Tudor's memories for Easter include hot cross buns and decorated eggs they'd hang from a tree branch and set on their dining table (click on photos to enlarge). . . .

"A Time to Keep"

April was also the time of year that the new crop of baby animals were out romping about the farm yard. . . .

"A Time to Keep"

April was when the birds would return and the showers would give hope to the May flowers that would soon appear. . . .

"Around the Year"

"Around the Year"

Two years ago Easter our first grandchild was just 11 days old.  Both sets of grandparents and our son's siblings all gathered at our youngest son's apartment to celebrate Easter and the newest member to our family.  I baked this cake using Susan Branch's recipe. . . .

Here is Susan's recipe. . . .

Then last year both families got together to celebrate her first birthday four days early on Easter with an egg hunt. . . .

This year Olivia didn't need any help looking for eggs. . . .

                   
When I was little I loved hunting for eggs on Mamaw and Papaw's farm.  I was 2½ in this photo with my daddy . . .

When our two oldest boys were 2 and 5 there was one Easter morning I remember vividly.  We were all at the breakfast table in front of the window that overlooked the porch.  Our eyes were closed to say grace.  When the boys opened their eyes they saw two candy-filled baskets on the porch that hadn't been there before.  I'd opened my eyes early, just in time to catch a surprised glimpse of my neighbor slinking away.  I do believe they believed in the Easter Bunny THAT year.

Do you have special memories of Easter?  Did you prepare a special cake this past Easter?

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Take Joy!