The Mad Hatter Tea Party. Yay

Oooooooohhhh I do love a tea party.  Espescially a blog tea party, and A Fanciful Twists blog has organised an Alice tea party. 



So bring out the cakes and the sandwiches and of course the tea. 

Maybe a glass of wine or some homemade lemonade. 

Perfect Lemonade Recipe

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Prep time: 10 minutesIngredients
1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

Method
1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.
2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.
3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.
Serve with ice, sliced lemons.

Yield: Serves 6.

Bring out the best china,

Get ready for the guests.  My mermaid wants to join in the fun, shall we let her?

Oh go on then.

Add a few sprinkles for the fairies too, dont forget to spill some milk and leave a few crumbs

Let them lick the honey from the spoons oh I do love honey.

Honey is a naturally sweet, viscous liquid made from the nectar of flowers and collected by honey bees. It comes in numerous varieties with different colours, textures and flavours. The flavour, colour and sweetness of honey depend on which type of flower the nectar was collected from.

Everyday honey is a commodity product, perhaps a mixture of what is cheapest from several countries. Standard honey is heat-processed and finely filtered, which makes it stay liquid. Otherwise, it can be purposefully crystallised and sold as ‘set honey’ - the kind that you spread with a knife. Clear (or 'runny') honey and set honey have different textures because of the varying amounts of natural sugars contained in each of them. Specialist honey comes from bees that have been set to work harvesting nectar in a specific place. They are simply warmed and gently filtered so that more of the taste and nutritional goodness stays in the pot.

There is a huge choice of honeys available. These include Scottish heather honey, acacia honey and French chestnut honey, plus a wide range from countries around the globe. It's worth asking the honey producer about the honey you're buying because the taste of honey varies according to the nectar it's made from. Since bees gather the honey from within only a few miles of their hives, beekeepers are able to influence where and upon what the bees feed and the final style and flavour the honey will have. To do this, they will put their hives in specific places, such as heather moorlands in Scotland, Northumbria and Dartmoor.

Then sit and maybe enjoy a crossword when your too full of cake and tea

Honey is a naturally sweet, viscous liquid made from the nectar of flowers and collected by honey bees. It comes in numerous varieties with different colours, textures and flavours. The flavour, colour and sweetness of honey depend on which type of flower the nectar was collected from.

http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/wonderland/crossword.htm

Have you heard of Pay it Forward?

I am taking part in Pay it Forward.

All you have to do is comment on this post and the first 5 people to respond will receive something Handmade by me.  There is no time limit so you dont need to rush.  I have always wanted to do this but the timing has never actually seemed right until now.  I am not sure what I will be making.  It could be jewellery, it could be mixed media, it could be a dream pillow.  Make sure you leave an email address so I can contact you for your addresses to send what I make onto you.  International welcome.

When I saw this post http://witcherygrove.blogspot.com/2011/06/pay-it-forward.html#comments I was delighted to realise I was the fifth person needed.  So to carry on the good will of Pay it Forward I look forward to making the goodies.

our first wedding anniversary

Wow, has it really been a year since our wedding?  Its gone so quickly.  Rob booked the week off work and we are having a fabulous time.  We decided to stay at home and go for days out.  On the Sunday, the actual anniversary we had booked a table at a delightful place called Morton Tea Rooms.  In the 1900's it used to be a school house.  The weather was shockingly dreadful but we had fun in the Landrover splashing puddles and the meal was fabulous. 

 Then on the Monday, we went to a picknic spot we both love called Buckham Down.  It used to be a rubbish dump, look at it now.

 Then on Tuesday we went to my favourite of all places Cannoteign Falls near Bovey Tracy in Devon.  We saw Three gorgeous black swans.  It boasts the highest waterfall in England, and it is very impressive.  I didnt make it to the top but I gave it a good go and gave in gracefully.  I left an offering of some crystals in the waterfall and immediately afterwards I saw a yellow pied wagtail which I hadnt seen before and then we found a swallows nest with mum settling in for the afternoon.

The funniest thing happened yesterday.  Mum had brought some fruit trees from Ebay and as I helped her open the tall boxes they had come in I saw something moving. I was stunned beyond belief to find it was a Toad.  I shrieked as it hopped out and went oh my god a toad, then mum shrieked as it hopped in the hallway and said catch it quick.  We did catch it and put it in our pond with the other toads and frogs already there.  The poor thing had been in the box all the way from Norfolk no wonder it was struggling to get out. 

Thorncombe woods experience

We had a very hot few days and yesterday we decided to visit a favourite place of ours close to Thomas Hardy's cottage.  IT was really hot and sticky. I struggled a bit with the heat but what we saw was well worth it.
                                                           THORNCOMBE WOODS

A 26-hectare site, close to Dorchester, incorporating broadleaved and mixed woodland and Black Heath, a mosaic of birch and heath.  Listed on the Ancient Woodland Inventory, Thorncombe Woods has great habitat diversity with mature oak, sweet chestnut, beech and mixed woodland. The woodland gives way to Black Heath an area of birch and open areas of bracken and heath as well as a small pond. Dormice have been recently recorded and Song Thrush, Marsh Tit and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, all red listed birds of conservation concern, breed in the wood. On Black Heath it is possible to see Dartford Warblers, Yellow Hammers and Nightjars. There are also rare invertebrates associated with both the woodland and heathland.

Running through the site is a well preserved Roman road which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM). There are a variety of paths to explore throughout the site linking in with local rights of way to Puddletown Forest and Dorchester.

                                       We had just made it to the pond known as Rushy Pond

When we heard a bit of rustling.  We turned to look and to our amazement and delighted shock 4 horses came trotting up to the pond.  Obviously they were as hot and thirsty as we were.

They munched, drank and nibbled before getting curious.  They came right up to us

and

It was such a surprise.  Apparently they are Dartmoor Ponies that Thorncombe woods have acquired for forest Conservation.  For us it just made our weekend