An Empty Bottle From Wine, A Warm Scone With Clotted Cream And Thou

The Windsor Rose Tea Room, Mt. Dora, FL

My friend Linder gave me three beautiful bottles for my bottle tree! These will class it up a notch, as they are out of the league of the wine, condiment and perfume bottles in the current collection. Linda's contribution is of purely decorative bottles: A cut glass bottle in crimson red, a yellow glass bottle with a sun design pressed into it, and a lovely blue pressed glass. Each has a unique shape and will add much character to "what's with the tree that nutsy woman down the street has hung 2 cases of hooch bottles from?." Thanks Linder! Her name is actually Linda, but she is from Massachusetts, so she says Linder. I'll take an updated pictur as soon as they are on the tree. My buds from MA say "er" instead of "a" and "ah" instead of "r". I asked one of them to say "parka" and she said "pahker." Cool. They were here first. They can say things however they want.

I am personally working on emptying a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry for my bottle tree. That's not a difficult project because it happens to be one of my favorites. It became an even better favorite when I noticed it comes in a cobalt blue bottle. Perfect! It should be devoid of sherry and ready for hanging by tomorrow. By the way, this is the favorite drink of Queen Elizabethand you know I like nothing better than to be in her favor.

Speaking of Royal things, My sisters and I happened to have tea at the Windsor Rose Tea Room in Mt. Dora on the Queen's Wedding Anniversary (11/20) one year. We were mortified that the staff was completely oblivious to this event. In salute of the marriage we ate extra helpings of Queen Victoria sponge cake and raised our tea cups to the Queen and Prince Philip and continued on with a conversation that included lots of laughter and all the usual sisterly fun. We order the Windsor tea which includes a 3 tiered tray of fresh hot scones with Devonshire clotted cream, cucumber sandwiches, sponge cake and several other desserts and finger sandwiches. M-m-m-m. A Bette Midler quote regarding tradition of English tea resides in a frame on the wall: It may be 3:00 PM in New York but it's still 1936 in London."

Have you seen Princess Anne lately? No reason. Just asking.

Hope your holiday weekend was a safe one! I don't know about you, but 4th of July sounded like Baghdad in my neighborhood. We stayed inside and prayed that one of our exuberant neighbors wouldn't burn our house down. In past years we've done a few fireworks of our own. We quit while we were ahead after we almost took out a neighbor's tree, car and then ourselves one year.

My calendar is slim pickings this week, but I will venture out of my hermitage so that I may report back with exciting tidbits from my adventures in the big world. Catch you later!

Daughters, Dogs, Bottle Trees and Florida Food

A little information about the current pictures on my site:

The Pretty Women are my daughter,Jennifer, on the left - pink shirt, and my "adopted" daughter and dear friend, Heather. Jennifer lives and works and especially shops in San Francisco. Thanks to today's technology she is just seconds away by e-mail, phone or text. I do miss her hugs and smiles though!

Layla, the dog, is the next picture. She's 8 years old, 20 lbs, poodle/schnauzer mix. I named her after the Eric Clampton song. The unplugged version. She's quiet, sweet and friendly and makes us laugh a lot. Layla likes to bark at squirrels, deer, ducks, egrets, mourning doves, ibis, raccoons, lizards...you get the picture. She also has several commands for me that she uses successfully throughout the day. The most unique is the one where she follows me into the bathroom and puts her paws up on the counter. The command is: "I'm thirsty, and even though I have 3 water dishes in the house I would like you to get me a Dixie cup full of water." Which I do. Another command is: "Oh, I see you have just settled down to watch a good movie on TV. Therefore I would like to go out RIGHT NOW please. I just want sniff stuff. When I come in I would like you to share your popcorn with me."

In case you are about to comment on why I wrote more about Layla than my daughter, I'll explain. It's because Jennifer neither gives nor takes commands. I raised her well. And, I'm just guessing here, she may not be pleased if I share her age and weight although her age is well earned and her weight is just fine. (and she's a Polish/Rumanian mix) Additionally, if I were to settle down to watch a movie, Jennifer would not ask to go outside and she just might make the popcorn. As long as it is healthy organic popcorn. With pink Himalayan sea salt. Fine grain.
I also have 1 son, Jason who lives nearby and visits his mother, and 1 husband, aka "the Mister" to whom I've shared wedded bliss for 38 1/2 years. You'll be hearing a lot about the Mister. He does, says and wears things that are worth discussing at great length in a blog. He knows I'll be writing about him. And yet he persists.

My bottle tree is in the next picture. What, you might ask, is a bottle tree? Why, it's a tree with bottles on it. There are many versions of bottle trees. They originated in North Africa as a funerary practice. Bad spirits would be enticed into the bottles by the bright glass and the sounds of wind crossing over the mouth of the bottle. Once in the bottle they could not harm the dead or the living. check out http://www.bottle-tree.com/ for more info and the new bottle tree industry. Bottle Trees are just for show and just for fun now. However, if you travel through the deep south you may still spot one of the old originals.

The last picture is of The Wharf - a favorite restaurant on St. Pete Beach.
www.wharfrestaurant.org Besides delicious sea food and excellent prices, the State Game and Wildlife officers who patrol the intercoastal water on their cute air boats may stop by for lunch. They wear really great looking uniforms. M-m-m-m. Oh, I was just referring to the food there.

I'm hungry after all the food talk - I'm off to check the refrigerator. Be back later!