Afternoon tea may bring visions of an English "high tea" to your mind, but afternoon tea also can be a break from spring gardening to enjoy a glass of iced tea and a blueberry muffin in a bluebonnet patch in your backyard.
Thanks to Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home for hosting It's a Spring Tea Party Blog Hop with 25 bloggers. I am excited to be part of this beauty-filled event.
See all of the links to the others who are sharing their visions of a Spring Tea Party at the end. You are certain to find some wonderful ideas for celebrating GLORIOUS SPRING at your house.
Welcome to everyone coming from one of my good blogging friends, Katie at Let's Add Sprinkles. Now, I consider all the bloggers on the Spring Tea Party good blogging friends, but Katie and I have a special blogging friendship. We co-hosted a weekly linky party with another good Texas blogging friend before Katie began hosting Keep in Touch. If you are missing The Scoop and Wow Us Wednesdays for connecting with others at linky parties, head over to Let's Add Sprinkles each Tuesday to join Katie's linky party.
In fact, several of my blogging friends on this Spring Tea Party Blog Hop co-host weekly linky parties and would love to have you join them each week. See a list of Linky Parties to join each week on my sidebar.
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Thank you for coming to read about an afternoon tea party here in Texas.
At my house, we are celebrating a favorite time of the year with iced tea and blueberry muffins in the patch of bluebonnets in our backyard.
Afternoon tea in the bluebonnets is a way to enjoy joie de vivre (exuberant joy of living) during an exuberant time of the year in Texas ... the time of bluebonnet blooming season.
A F T E R N O O N T E A
i n t h e B L U E B O N N E T S
Bluebonnet season is one of the highlights of the year for Texans and for travelers driving across our state when blankets of blue fill the roadsides, vacant lots, pastures, and hillsides. Seeing cars pulled over on an interstate so travelers can take photos is a common sight during bluebonnet blooming season. Please be careful!
Seeing bluebonnets growing in yards, gardens, and acreage of homeowners is another common sight. We cherish the little blue flowers that reseed themselves and come back year after year to announce Spring has arrived in Texas.
And, we add to the natural reseeding by sowing bluebonnet seeds bought from wildflower companies. We had a bumper crop of bluebonnets in our backyard this year due to abundant rain during the fall and winter months when bluebonnets sprout and form low-growing rosettes awaiting Spring to grow larger and to bloom. You can see peeks of bluebonnets around the tea table and on the hillside in the background.
Bluebonnets, our state flower, help us endure what we know is coming ... a long hot summer with drought conditions when the prairies go dormant, roadsides turn brown, and gardens languish. The little bluebonnet will have finished blooming and gone to seed for next year's crop long before the summer heat arrives.
While the little lupine is in its prime, we celebrate all things bluebonnet. Celebrating the little joys of everyday living helps create a happy life by recognizing and focusing on good things in our lives. Seeking and finding everyday joys help us endure the trials and tribulations that also come in life.
The setting for an afternoon tea does not have to be elaborate. Pull together a couple of folding chairs and a small table. Gather muffins, plates, napkins, tablecloth, mint, ... in a basket to transport outside.
The table can be rickety and need stabilizing on a hillside with old bricks under the legs.
A white with blue border silk and cotton tablecloth makes any table a festive tea table. Watch for vintage tablecloths from the 1940s and 1950s on eBay. A quick search showed several with bids below $20.
Taking breaks from work refreshes both the body and the spirit. Being outdoors is an added bonus because nature is known to reduce mental stress and to improve physical health.
Adding a sprig of mint to a glass of iced tea is an easy way to elevate a tea break from an ordinary daily experience to a special moment.
Serve blueberry muffins on a blue floral china plate and use cloth napkins to make the afternoon iced tea and muffin break even more special.
Enjoying iced tea among the blue bonnets can be impromptu, without planning required. Whatever baked goods you have on hand can turn a refreshing glass of tea into a Spring tea party. No baked goods? Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to go with your iced tea ... outside amidst your flowers, celebrating a time of your life.
Celebrate the moments of life to turn those moments into a special time filled with je ne sais quoi (something hard to describe.)
Mother's Day is just around the corner. Be sure to read all the posts for It's a Spring Tea Party filled with beautiful ideas for setting a tea table that could also be a table to honor the moms in your life.
Celebrate the moments of life to turn those moments into a special time filled with je ne sais quoi (something hard to describe.)
French country is more than a decorating style;
French country is a way of life
where the ordinary is elevated to the extraordinary.
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Next up on the blog tour is Michelle at The Painted Hinge with more beautiful ideas for celebrating Spring with a Tea Party. P.S. Michelle hosts Farmhouse Friday linky party for farmhouse related posts.
Mother's Day is just around the corner. Be sure to read all the posts for It's a Spring Tea Party filled with beautiful ideas for setting a tea table that could also be a table to honor the moms in your life.
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You may also enjoy the following.
Pinterest Board, Round Up of Blog Tours
See this Group Board's description for how to join the board. Guidelines specify only to pin blog hop tours, not INDIVIDUAL home tours.
Beyond Bluebonnets is about other Spring wildflowers in Texas.
