For Me It's Tea Time Weather

 Good morning Friday (the 13th) I just realized yesterday that today would be Friday the 13th.

   Cooler mornings now, so I am enjoying drinking hot cups of tea. Yesterday afternoon, I straightened up my tea corner. I ran out of cabinet space for a spot for my teas-so it takes up this space that is near the refrigerator and to the left around the corner the electric stove. Some of these teas are many years old but are still good.

 When I get a chance to visit the Amish store  I always check out their teas as they are usually marked down under two dollars. I have collected over the years lots of Gevalia coffee ceramic containers, and at garage sales I had picked up different sizes of blue jars with the hinged glass lids and other containers. I have a few tins as well.

  I had several boxes of teas that I just tossed on top of the containers, so it was time to clean and straighten this up.  I was able to get them all into tins or inside these containers.

   I have never used that light under the cupboard-there is no plug there so needs a long cord to reach one. I should see if I can get that off. Under the light area is my medicinal teas, recipes in front and I keep the coconut oil here as easier to get to.

The drawing was given to me as a gift from a very long time blog friend that lives in Paris France-Agnes

     There are two jars of homemade cocoa mix. One made with powdered  milk and the other one made with coconut milk powder

another close up of that corner under the light. In front of medicinal teas are jars of ice tea, and lemon or fruit instant beverages for cold drinks

After I recovered from the dairy attack to my system-I have lost 10 pound since then. I like hot cereals so I have been making up one for my breakfast several times a week. I found a jar of local honey I purchased at a market years ago-at least 6-8 years ago. It had not crystalized so am adding to my cereals  

    Enjoying a cup of Bigelow vanilla decaf black tea this morning as well

Happy Friday and weekend

New Teas in the Mail & Baking Begins & T

 I ordered some new teas for the winter-and beyond, some are showing up in my  mail now.

   Yesterday I got in some of the new teas I had ordered. 

   I usually do not drink decaf black teas I prefer mostly herbal and the green and white teas. I found a cinnamon decaf black tea that sounded interesting and  perfect for December. Surprised me how good this tea is. It had a few other spices in it too. I also ordered two different brands of decaf black teas as well. Thought if the cinnamon was really strong I would add a plain black tea bag to it.

 After this photo, I did end up using one of the plain decaf black tea bags in my mug-sooo delicious which really surprised me The cinnamon tea bags were the clear triangle type tea bags and it came in a nice tin

I picked up the coffee mug at the animal shelter's thrift store late summer when I was shopping for clothes

The Bromley also has orange pekoe with the decaf black tea Amazon has a huge assortment of teas-I am shopping more online these days-so much easier, usually less expensive, and I don't have to drive anywhere.

Last night while listening to the Voice I mixed up the wheat and gluten free gingerbread cut out cookie doughs. I usually mix with my hand mixer, but since I had my stand mixer where I can get to it easily-just plug it in-I mixed in that instead. Really is nicer to use-now that I don't have to carry it over to use it-way too heavy for me to do that anymore.

 Over the weekend Larry asked for my Grandma's Yellow Angle Food Cake. I hadn't made that in awhile. I usually bake up two cakes-one wheat and one gluten free. I just made his cake this time as I will have baked cookies soon to eat.

   I had lost 10 pounds the first 6 weeks taking care of Larry from his accident-which was a good thing, but I wasn't eating much or sleeping well either. Now that he is off the every 4 hours of pain medicines I am catching up on sleep and sigh-snacking more-I have a bad habit of snacking in the evenings. I have gained back 3 pounds and want to lost that again so I can eat Christmas cookies and goodies-smiles  I will be making chocolate popcorn, dipped chocolates, chocolate barks, and chex mix. 

  Speaking of the Voice do any of you watch that show? I have watched every show from when it first started. What has kept this show interesting for me is the judges are always changing and they change the way the show works too with different rules etc. This year the music talent was exceptional but I don't care for the new rules and how they are eliminating people. Last night was the first of this season we could vote favorites to stay in the show. Usually we vote from the whole cast last night we could only vote one person through-not sure I like that set up. Perhaps that eliminates voting more for the judge than the talent-which they say some voters do.

   Since it's Tuesday, I think I will check in with the T group this week. Link Up Here  My cup of tea is my "ticket" in Happy Tuesday

T Stands for Cold Brewed Teas and Coffee

    It's T time again over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog.  This link up is for sharing and commenting on each other's posts, only requirement is to share a drink related photo.

   Last week I shared my cold brew tea in my lovely vintage crystal pitcher  I enjoyed the lemongrass tea with citrus peels very much. The second time I made it I left the tea to brew in the refrigerator for around 36 hours-I got a better flavor and also the extended time smoothed out the citrus flavors.

   Over the weekend I ran into a box of Bigelow large tea bags for cold brewing tea. I found I had two large tea bags left, and my pitcher was the exact size I needed -so perfect.  I had forgotten about having this in my tea stash..

 A peak into my frig shows it already has a lovely color

    When I made this up Saturday morning, I got to thinking is there really a difference between cold brew tea and a homemade iced tea?

   In the summer time my Mom would steep a bunch of tea bags in very hot water, let sit for while, and then she would pour it all over a pitcher half filled with ice and add fresh sliced lemons(and lots of sugar.   I remember it seemed quite the process at the time  I don't put a sweetener in my teas

     So I did an online search From here  and from here lots of information and both mentioned  flavors-which tastes better? 

   from the second link I agree with  them This link they stated: With Cold brew, the slower brewing process creates a sweeter brew that is more delicate and nuanced. There is very little bitterness and astringency in this process, even if the leaves are left in water for a longer period of time. Darker and roasted teas tend to have a bold, deeper, and more complex flavor

 

I have one more link to share here  Cold brew teas and coffee

    This link is full of information and it also shares what I had read about years ago maybe back in the 90's or earlier:  that sun teas can grow dangerous bacteria-

   So although sun teas are fun to brew I no longer make them.

 With our extreme heat and humidity continuing for who knows how long.  I will be making pitchers of cold brew tea for us this coming week, Larry may even enjoy some cold brew coffee. (smiles)  Of course you can spruce up your cold brew coffees-with cream, sweets and more-we usually just like teas and coffees plain without all the extras. A bit of kahlua is nice though in cold coffees too.

   I received two lovely cards in the mail this past week-I love my slow mail friends thank you both.

From Deb this very pretty handmade card I really love it makes he happy

and from another dear slow mail friend at Hill Top, along with her handmade stationary (handmade is so much more fun) she made a tag for me, and I also love her stamps on the envelope and her papers-and a cool postage stamp too.

I have one more drink share.  Most of you know I love Yellowstone, and back when I was planning my visit there in 2017 I picked up a couple of these really wonderful Liberty water bottles-made in the usa.  I am adding a little ice in the bottom fill up with cold water and add a tea bag and put the lid on. I don't drink enough liquids even in the hot summer time so thought this would help me drink more water during the day (and tea) I also have a couple mints growing so I snip off a few leaves and add them in water too along with a little lemon.

 PS I deleted this post to get rid of a problem with a link that I couldn't fix-and I shortened this post too. so that's why you may see two in your feed.

   Will write a stand alone post about my hand dye fabric pieces and sashiko jacket project-ongoing with ideas

  In my previous post-if interested- I posted a discussion about link ups, you are most welcome to join in the discussion.

  Happy T everyone, hoping you can stay cool in this heat if it has reached you too.

T Stands For: Can One Have Too Many Tea Choices??

 Hello Friends,

  It's time for T with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth. Link in my sidebar where we share a drink related photo in our post and link up-you are most welcome to join in.

  Last week I got allot accomplished in my computer/weaving and more room. There was a big stack of boxes we hadn't gone through yet since the move here, and in front of my vintage dressers were handwoven rugs (My Mom had a weaver down the road from her in the country that wove rugs for her) on top of that a few more pieces of leathers to clean up, and on top of that deer hides.  Our archery equipment is along this back wall too-we weren't ready to part with it yet, and no other place to put it. We did go through these boxes, and found more small art pieces I had acquired, vintage men's shaving pieces, and two boxes full of plates for the walls. Larry put up two very old rustic shelves and we have re arranged everything. Now I can actually get into these old dressers, walk around my loom, walk up to the shelving and access that area-so much more useable. Floor space for friends to sleep on a blown up queen bed, and I can bring the large quilt frame back in this room too, 

   I will share all that another day-we did have enough hangers to put on all the plates Today (Monday) I hung up all of the plates, and the smaller art work too. The Native American plates we picked up over the years, and my Mom was a huge collector of plates and decided I needed gnome plates (smiles) So this will be the first time they will get hung up-I will enjoy seeing these too. The gnomes make me smile.

  On top of one of these dressers, I had it filled with jars, bags and tins of teas. Some of these teas I bought before we retired (2003) and moved to Missouri. I decided I wanted and needed all the teas in one area of the kitchen so I can easily get to them and use them more. I don't have any cabinet space left to put these in, so I put the large crock pot with pottery insert into a closet-something I don't use often but sometimes it comes in handy; which gave me a huge spot in the corner near the stove for all of these teas. I left the toaster there in front-something we don't use much either, but like it to be accessible.

 I am sure to most of you this space looks totally cluttered but I like it much better. I can see the Gevalia pottery cannisters and the glass tall jars with lids. Everything is labeled now and I am loving it. There are also a few glass jars with my own dried fruits-apples with cinnamon and peaches. I always dried my fruits and veggies hard-and they last for years and years.

  I tried a couple of the Japanese and Chinese green teas that I had bought ages ago and they taste good still-they have been sealed in crocks or tins all this time

  So do you think I have way too many tea choices?? 😉  (in front under the blue towel is the large toaster and I usually keep the hot mitts on top). The stove is just to the left of this corner area. 

       It has been a cold week so I have been really enjoying my cups of teas. I have enjoyed using this one person tea pot (from Mom's estate) which is just perfect for loose teas.

    Tea below is a jasmine tea with marigold petals, rose petals, blue coneflower petals  and jasmine blossoms from Simpson and Vail  I am really love this tea blend, I think the jasmine leaves may has a little caffeine but hasn't bothered me so far.

  I don't use this hand thrown porcelain cup very often but it was perfect to enjoy this pretty tea. This cup is heavy on the bottom This is another pottery piece from the '80s. He would do allot of experiments and this was one of them.

  We have been enjoying watching the different birds come to the bird feeders and to the little table. It was just a matter of time when the squirrels would appear and cause allot of trouble. Here at the lake we have these little grey squirrels. I didn't mind them eating at the table or on the deck but today (Sunday) they went after the feeders-I needed to bring them in today so things wouldn't get broken. Sigh Then this squirrel decided to attack my windchime-haha

Monday morning I decided to scatter some seed on the railing

  On another note I am planning on creating another weekly food post-(along with  my Cast Iron Saturdays) and I am leaning towards Food Fridays.  If I can figure out a link up I may do that also. 

   At first I was thinking of just sharing gluten free recipes, but I would rather not be so limiting. I am thinking a food recipe share of your choice, or a photo of food at your home or at a restaurant. So this blog event would be all about foods. Any thoughts? Would you like to participate, or only be interested in reading my food post or not?   Thanks for any feedback. I had thought of Food Wednesdays since many of you join in for Friday Smiles, and one reader suggested if she found a recipe she would like to make on Wednesday she would have time to shop for ingredients over the weekend  Thoughts??

   Happy T for Tuesday   Enjoy this new week.

Good morning Friday

 Good morning Friday everyone, yeh finally we woke up to sunshine here at the lake. It has been soooo dreary and depressing looking here for some time.

  I brewed up a mini teapot full of Simpson & Vail's Louisa May Alcott's Green tea blend which is green tea leaves, apple pieces, strawberry pieces and rose petals. a really delicious blend and we had the last two slices of the lemon meringue pie for breakfast this morning.

  More later but I ended up taking the quilt off of the large frame-just too hard to work on it there, and am trying out a big hoop-which many people use instead of a frame. I ordered another assortment of needles as the one that will work is a bit short. The others will be perfect for wool appliques.

Have an awesome day-what are you all up to today??

  This is another handmade pottery cup, perfect for tea

T Stands for Tuesday & Spring is Here

  Hi Everyone,
  Our last T for the month of March. Seems like a very long month doesn't it ??  With all of the concerns over the world pandemic-we are all in this together though.

  If you missed my last post I shared my latest painting inspired from one of my own sunrise photos. I like this one better than some of them.

  Today we had another lovely day almost 70 degrees f so I decided to search for my old gardening seeds and plant some pots full of lettuce, radishes, swiss chard, and baby bok choys-we will see what happens. I also put a small pot under the hook hanger and planted some edible pea pods-they can wind on up that hummingbird pole

  and you can see my almost empty coffee cup here

These are in front of the door that faces the driveway and road These have swiss chard and leaf lettuce.

This is a huge copper pot that we brought down. Years and years ago one of Larry's relatives drilled holes in this for flowers.  What a way to ruin this copper pot. He was always going to see if he could seal the holes-which is a project that never got done-soooo I brought it to the lake house to do just that with it haha.
    I filled it with several different radishes and leaf lettuce's. mini bok choy

I put the pea pods in that small pot-I may need to move it if they don't grow tall fast enough as those are iris's coming up around it.

  You can see from this photo we are still in construction mode. We bought bricks for my outdoor kitchen, and I brought those patio bricks and bricks that I had bought. If nothing else I will set up something for my cast iron cooking. All these bricks were for my outdoor kitchen, plus another load down by the fire pit-with the virus we can't have our helper do this now.
  All that rock and concrete pieces is what was in the walk way down there-that all needs to get hauled off to other areas on the property-a large hill, and a pathway down to the lake.

I didn't take photos but the oregano plant I brought down that sits next to the lavender plant is budding out as is the lavender. Happy about that. I will probably get the lavender out of the pot this fall and plant it directly into the ground.

Last fall I raked up allot of leaves-bushels and bushels of them-I was amazed how many leaves on this tiny lot-compared to our woods home where we lived amongst lots of trees. There I didn't do anything with them except rake up the ones around the buildings and put them in the compost pile.
   Everyone around me here was burning their leaves in the road-wierd I thought lol I don't like burning leaves.  I raked them up against a wall behind the fire pit-and decided now that I needed to start burning them-just too many and I don't have a way to compost here.

If you enlarge this photo and look close at the edge of the grass line nearest the water you will find a pair of robins.  I saw the one robin so went into the house to grab my camera and when I got back he was still there--when I uploaded the photo I discovered there were two  Did you find them? The robin to the right of the other is looking at you.
  I worry about everything-now it's the grass-it just started growing and we don't have anything to cut it. We tried different people last year and they were so bad we had to fire them-keep telling Hubs he needs to put an ad out again for help with this.

Below is behind the fire pit and to the far right-I thought this was cool-a little house for a critter of some sort.

  And this photo is way to the left of above photo-where I raked up loads of leaves last fall all along this wall. I have discovered many wild violets in the grass in this area-so these leaves nee to get off so they don't die out-I love the wild violets. I enjoy making things with them too.

Yesterday (Sunday) I made us comfort food-baby back ribs- It was very windy so I cooked them in a covered roaster in the oven. This was the left overs

I have been enjoying the different teas I bought-they are all green teas or white teas. I have not been disappointed with any of the teas. Very nice combinations of teas and flowers etc

another drink reference-Husband's hard root beer-when we had dinner on the deck last week

That's my catch up for this week-I was kinda in the dumps last week, too concerned over the virus spread which is around us now-would not be safe for us to drive back to the woods house area right now as they have allot of cases.

   Actually I am grateful that we are here at the lake house otherwise I don't know how I could buy food-I would be afraid to shop in my old area now. I may look into buying groceries online at Wal Mart and then have them put my foods in my car. 
    So many people from the large cities came to the lake this past weekend-not happy about that as I am sure they have spread the virus-they need to stay home to save lives.
  I did not go anywhere at all for 2 1/2 weeks and then last week I needed to go grocery shopping-it worked out well-was very very foggy so very few people at the store. They only let me buy one dozen eggs though-which was a bummer.
 
   I have always bought things ahead by 2 months it's what we do living rural, so I have things in the pantry just not fresh items.
   Still have not been able to buy any t paper so am glad I still have about 6 weeks in stock.
 
Happy T everyone-stay safe

T Stands for Tuesday

 Hello everyone,

   It is T time on Tuesdays with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth-please join us with your drink related post (must share a photo of your beverage) and link up-see my sidebar for link.
       Over the weekend, especially Sunday and again today we have warmed back up to lovely fall temperatures-in the 60's and 70's f   Yesterday Hubs even grabbed his fishing pole and the last of the worms that have been in the frig for a couple months now and headed to the edge of the grass and did a few casts into the lake. There were so many boats on the water again over the weekend-they had bar hops and bass tournaments, and when the boats come up too close to our dock-which they usually do-it rocks allot and he isn't real sturdy on his legs just yet.
    I scrubbed the outside of those big windows and Wow what a difference-doesn't even look like glass is there now-I do need to still wipe down the inside of the windows too and then it will look even more amazing.
   I have been enjoying the gorgeous full moon over the lake the past several days now-not orange moon but a white moon-thinking the next full moon should be the big orange moon.
   Larry is down to one visit now from the in home nurse which is mostly keeping tabs on the warfarin numbers. She has been working on getting him a monitor that reads the blood so he can do it himself. Takes time to get the oks from the doctor and medicare. I am thinking he will be on cardiac rehab soon as well.  We also will need to watch if he is still retaining too much water-which was what this surgery was also suppose to help with (congestive heart)  He is feeling much better though-now to make sure it doesn't over do.

   A year ago I bought the foam to make new cushions for the bench seats to our dining table. Too much going on so haven't gotten to it. I did finally get it cut-I messed up the first set terribly, so good thing I had just enough to cut another set. This time  was harder to cut accurately than  the set I made around 2004. This will be my next priority to get made. I have to really think again on how to sew the covers-I found a good tutorial online. I have  yardage of jean material so will make these with that fabric.-It was a gift  when we first moved here, a friends' wife used to work atthe Levi factory that had just closed down when we moved-so the workers were able to buy fabric. That was a big loss to all the workers at that time.

   While Larry was fishing for a bit-I poured me a glass a wine and took it outdoors to enjoy being outside and watching the boats.

  Also yesterday I heard the eagle pair-I recognize their calls now-and there they were up in the same tree. They stayed there several hours. The started singing or calling allot so thought I would take a video, but by the time I got back they had stopped.

I really enjoy these eagles

I found this video-their call is so different than what I thought it would be.

I also wanted to share a follow up from my blog about plastics in tea bags-a shock to me.  I wrote to several tea companies that I buy from:
   Celestial Seasonings never wrote me back

    Stash sent me this: Thank you for taking the time to contact us.The filter paper used for Stash Tea bags is made from 100% cellulose fibers (wood). Stash tea bag filter paper is machine folded and pressed, therefore no glue is needed or used. Our teabags are completely compostable and do not contain any plastic.

    Tazo sent me this: Product safety is an area we never compromise on, which is why our tea bags meet all regulatory requirements set by the U.S and Canada. This includes the materials used for our tea bags when they come into contact with hot water. Our Tazo tea bags are made of hemp and a trace amount of plastic that is used to bind our tea bags together. We are actively exploring and testing new, more sustainable materials.

     Bigelow sent me this: Kathy,

There is no plastic in 95% of our teabags, just paper.The other 5%, which includes our 40 count packaging, uses trace amounts of thermoplastic fibers to seal the bags. However, this material is being converted to a plant based material over the next 3-4 months.

So I will be getting back to buying more from Stash teas and Bigelow teas for sure. Online I did read the Celestial Seasonings uses plastics and I buy allot from them, so no more. I do like some of the Lipton teas and I read online that they working on getting rid of plastics but they do have it their tea bags. So the best option really is going back to loose teas. I always have allot of teas on hand too, so I will be working on using those up-taking the teas out of the bags, and just put in a small strainer or tea ball.

Happy T everyone!

Wow I had No Idea-Most Tea Bags Are Full of Plastics

  Good morning,
      This is all news to me-I had Noooo idea. I take a quiz every morning at Free the Ocean which helps to remove plastics from our oceans. This was the quiz question today. I was totally surprised by this so had to do some google searches.


    I found this study here

    An article from 2018 on which teas (most tea bags seem to use the plastic)

Found this article     You’d probably be surprised to learn that most tea bags contain up to 25% plastic. In fact, we didn’t know about plastic in tea bags until we watched a viral BBC video about tea production in 2017.

another study



(I copy and pasted so my background colors are a bit messed up)

I have allot of boxes of teas so this is just alarming news to me. Now I am wondering if I take the tea out of the bag and into a tea infuser am I eliminating the plastic? Couldn't find that question answered.

Did any of you already know about this?? some of the studies even brought up finding fleas in our teas-ugh 

 Thought I would share.

T Stands For Tuesday & Still painting

  Good morning everyone,
      Another Tuesday is upon us and for me the week flew by really fast.
      On my side bar and also this link will take you to our hostess Elizabeth for T for Tuesday. You are most welcome to visit all the artists and participants and join in with your post as well.

   I worked on painting the bathroom walls a little bit every day since last Tuesday and I put in lots of time Friday afternoon til about 10 pm and most of the day on Saturday as well. Hubs went out of town for his business for a couple days so it was my perfect opportunity to take down the temporary shower set up around the tub so I could get all that painted while he was gone.  I also needed to add the tissue paper up close to the ceiling as well in that area. and it takes me awhile to paint a room as I use a brush instead of a roller-hubs thinks I am crazy lol but I can handle that better than a roller-always have painted walls with my brush.
   I got it mostly finished except for one storage area, above the rock shower for that strip up by the ceiling, and to go over another area to touch up.
   I decided we both needed to take Sunday off which we rarely do so that was really nice-ended up visiting friends to have them invite us to stay for bbq ribs for dinner-what a nice surprise and fun afternoon-evening with friends.
          We were not expecting at all to have dinner with our friends Sunday evening other wise I would have grabbed my camera and taken a picture of my ribs and big glass of pink lemonade.

   Today the plan was to finish up all the painting-Wrong lol it all caught up with me when I got out of bed this morning. Neck, knees and painting arm are all screaming at me. I would have jumped in Monday afternoon anyways to get it finished if it were not for my neck--that is always wierd to me-the delayed pain effect lol   oh well part of getting older I am realizing.

This first photo shows the rocks: to the left by the tub and the shower-my vision was that this color on the walls would make the rocks "pop" and it does we will be sealing the rocks too when I am finished so they will look gorgeous.

(photos will enlarge even more just click on them)

This photo is of the shower

and this photo is looking through the other area of the bathroom into the tub and shower room
   You can see from the photos how the light changes the color of the paint-I also have two stains to rub into the textures as well  I am really pleased with the paint results so far.

   
      Soooo, it's raining again today; I decided a good day to bake up a big batch of gluten free chocolate chip cookies to keep my body moving.  
    Oh Yummy these turned out sooo good. I follow my childhood days recipe for tollhouse cookies but change the flour to Bob's Red Mill 1 for 1 gluten free flour which is my go to all purpose gf flour now, for the sugars in this one I used mostly all coconut sugar with a little bit of splenda, instead of butter I only bake with coconut oil now. I also added a couple heaping tablespoons of Hershey's dark cocoa, added cinnamon and a little bit of cake spice and for the chips I used Ghiradeli dark chocolate and white chocolate chips, and a handful of Nestle's butterscotch chips.
      I mostly use Ghiradeli chips now as they are always gluten free and I have switched to their dark chocolate chips-better quality too. Nestle's chips I have to always check for wheat added to their chips which is very annoying for me. While writing this I thought I would mention in case you do not want gmo's in your foods-the last time I bought Nestle chips I checked really well for the wheat didn't see anything but when I got home-big bummer in small print not near the ingredient list it said they had included gmo's I was not happy at all so through them out.

     I packed up a container of cookies for our Yellowstone trip and stuck them in the freezer so they are ready to grab for the trip. This batch turned out sooo good that I am going to freeze most of the rest so I don't eat too many lol

      A note about my Canon Powershot camera I was having trouble with.  
    In the end Canon was no help at all, in fact after writing to them about it within 5 minutes I got a form letter addressing the issue of the battery not holding a charge. They instructed what I could do and if that did not work I could send it in for repair but for a charge--thought that was horrible service when they know there is an issue with this model. 
     However, the Ebay seller worked with me even though it was after 3 months and allowed me to send the camera back for a full refund. Sje had sent me a replacement battery but I had the same issue-would not hold a charge.
     I was soooo thankful for her excellent customer service. She said she did have one other camera that had done the same thing. (her store is proshippers)  I promised her I would spread the good word on my social media.

      For my beverage to share for my T group I decided tonight to get out one of my teapots and enjoy some nice hot tea while watching The Voice. 
     I have collected several small tea pots that I really enjoy the beauty of and using too. I love handmade pottery dishware. The lemon balm is my own that I dried: it makes a lighter looking tea-but looks are deceiving as it brews in to a strong flavored mint with lemon-love it

and Surprise, I went out to sit with Miss Calico earlier this afternoon and look what I saw: clematis starting to bloom today and lemon balm sprouting too with all the rains and a bit of sunshine today.

  This last photo I thought got froze out but looking so much better now after all the rain.

Happy T Day everyone, I really enjoy and appreciate your visits.

Late Monday afternoon actually just a bit after I posted this my husband was helicoperted to the hospital over an hour from us so depending what happens this morning I won't get back to all of you right away