Tuesday 4 ~ Coffee? Tea?

 Coffee? Tea?

Welcome once again to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.



The longest living cat on record, Creme puff, lived to be 38 years old and was given coffee at breakfast all his life. Breakfast for him was bacon, eggs, broccoli and coffee.
The previous ownder of the record was Grandpa Rex Allen who\ lived to be 34 years old on the same diet.
Coffee reduces chances of Alzheimers, Parkinsons.
Tea without adding milk can "tan" your bladder making for many problems Milk binds the tanic acid making it safe to drink.
Homemade food increases an animal's life span too. Let's talk about it, okay?


1. Coffee increases a bee's memory and does the same for you. Bees love caffeinated coffee flowers. What do you love about coffee or tea?
Oh dear...I don't drink coffee at all. Never could develop a taste for it. My mother loved her coffee every morning, but my Dad preferred tea, although I never saw him drink it regularly.  My hubby drinks coffee,  so I make a pot for him every morning, and I drink tea while he enjoys his coffee. What do I love about tea? Well, it helps to start my day off right...it helps me wake up and it also helps with things like regularity! (you asked, so I'm telling. LOL).  I love the variety of different kinds of teas, but I mostly stick with Lipton's black tea every day and save the others for special occasions.

2. If you opened a tea or coffee shop in your neighborhood what would it be named? How would you decorate it? Would pastry or cake be served?

I've always thought it would be fun to have a Tea Party place. It would be a special place for ladies (or men if they so desire) to gather with their friends or their daughters, mothers, sisters...and be treated to a really fun and happy tea party. It would be decorated with all kinds of tea pots and cups and saucers, and lovely table settings that make every person feel really special when they come there.  Ladies would be encouraged to wear fancy hats and gloves, and dress up for a fun party. I may have to name it something like "Pamela's Victorian Cottage and Tea Room".   As far as food, yes, pastries, tea cakes, and other special tea party foods...scones, dainty dishes of delightful food...but there would be healthy food too...not all sweets.

It would be fun to have an outdoor garden tea room...I found this on the internet and I really love it. Someday I'm going to do this!

Internet Photo

3. Beethoven required 60 beans per cup of coffee. How particular are you about your coffee or tea?
I'm not THAT particular, but I like my hot tea hot, and I don't like it too strong or too weak. It needs to be JUST RIGHT! LOL.

4.Italian clergy in1600s declared coffee the devil's brew and forbid it.
Pope Clement the VIII wanted to taste it, loved it and blessed it ... today, new research shows black coffee is drunk mainly by psychopaths...
Sweden banned coffee in 1746 as dangerous and Islam banned it for causing free thinking!
How do you take your coffee you free thinking, radical and what's your favorite brand of devil's brew?

Since I don't drink coffee I don't have a favorite brand. The price of coffee lately has been ridiculous. Hubby drinks either Maxwell House or Folgers, whichever one is on sale. He's not particular, but he sure wants it hot and fresh!  I am thankful that he's not real particular about brands, etc.,  and that he's not into the current coffee trend of having to go to places like Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts, etc., to get a special coffee all the time. I honestly don't know how people afford it. Our little town just recently got a new Dunkin Donuts place, and it amazes me to see the line of cars around the building every day, waiting for their coffee or latte or whatever it is they are getting. I never knew coffee and donuts was so popular!  

Here's a link to one of my posts about tea parties.  There's a lot more in the side bar under the categories of Tea Time or Tea Party.

I found this in a little book by Emilie Barnes, entitled "Everything I know I Learned Over Tea".

In case you can't read that, it says; 

"A Loving Recipe for a Perfect Cup of Tea"

"1 willing friend who loves to sit and share

1 grateful heart to have a friend that cares

1 beautiful garden to show us God is near

Many wonderful memories of times shared throughout the years

Lots of smiles and laughter to brighten up our days

Many prayers that we prayed for each other along the way."

Author Unknown

And that, to me, is what tea time is all about. Or it could be coffee time. I guess it all depends on the heart and attitude of those enjoying the time together, no matter what the "brew".  

Thank you, Annie, for being our hostess. I've missed out on the past few weeks of Tuesday 4, so I thought this would be a good one to jump back in again.  If you wish to join in the fun, you can go HERE and join in!  Whatever you do, have a lovely day!!

My new TEA mug, hard at work already!

Happy September/Labor Day!Updated

UPDATE at 3:45 p.m.: Blackie is HOME!!

He didn't give us any explanation as to where he'd been all day, but he came home for supper and he's hungry! He looks fine...so I guess he just needed a day out on the "town" or something...who knows? But we are very happy he's home, and as you can see, Sunshine is happy too.  So thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for our wayward kitty!    

I love a happy ending, don't you?   

Happy September 1st, 2025! Happy Labor Day!  Hooray for the "ber" months to finally arrive! My favorite time of year!  And in keeping with celebrating the beginning of the "ber" months (SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER, DecemBER), let's start out with the calendar roll call!

I kind of love this one...do you see the rainbow across the lake? This is the kind of scene that I love...and even though our Still Waters Pond has never had quite this much water in it, this picture reminds me of our beautiful pond and the lovely sunsets we have enjoyed here.

Some of you have already seen these photos on Facebook last week, but this is how our Still Waters Pond looked a few mornings ago...pretty much encased in fog, and you can see how desperately dry the pond is right now...we definitely need those rainstorms to come our way instead of circumventing our area every day and giving us false hope!

Okay, let's get back on track...back to the September Calendars!  Oh, I DO love this John Sloane Country Seasons calendar...and this picture is picture perfect!  Entitled "Ladies in Waiting"...the young lady is waiting for some customers at her vegetable wagon, and the hens are waiting for ??? A Rooster??? LOL.   And I'm waiting for the apples to ripen...nothing like fresh apples in the fall. I am excited that next month we plan to go to the North Georgia Mountains for a few days with our kids, and the highlight is always to go get some fresh apples at the apple orchards!   So I guess I am a "lady in waiting" too!

I'm still waiting to do our fall decorating when hubby and I can get out to the shed and bring in all the containers of decor. (Or until a strong son comes and does it for us...we'll see which comes first!)  But meanwhile I changed out a few things here and there with items that I already have in the house, and we went to the Dollar General this morning and saw these two new fall mugs and decided they needed to come home with us. 

Guess which one is going to be hubby's, and which one is going to be mine?

Believe it or not, hubby picked the Pumpkin Patch one, but only after I said I would buy two of the same "grateful, thankful, blessed" mugs so we could each have the same thing...he said "No, I want the Pumpkin Patch mug and you can have the other one." I asked if he was sure, and he said yes, he was sure, so there you go! Did you guess that?

And speaking still about waiting...Here is Sunshine, up on top of the grill on the back porch and looking inside my window while I sit here and work. This was actually a little earlier this morning. Normally the grill is Blackie's favorite spot, but for some reason Blackie has not shown up yet this morning, which is VERY strange.   When I went out to feed them at 7:00 Sunshine was the only one here. I called and called for Blackie, but he never showed up to eat.  A little while later is when Sunshine decided to jump up on Blackie's favorite perch and he sat there for a long time, watching me through the window and also watching for Blackie to arrive.  It is now after 10:30 a.m., and still no sign of Blackie.  We drove around the neighborhood a while ago to make sure he wasn't laying on the road somewhere, and praying that he wasn't...and no sign of him.  I go out and call every so often and even rattled the treat container so he could hear it, but still no response.  This is unusual for Blackie, so I am praying that he's not hurt somewhere.  If he doesn't show up soon I will put a notice on our community "word of mouth" on Facebook to see if anyone has seen him. Of course, there are many black cats around and they all pretty much look alike, but Blackie has that clipped ear which should distinguish him.  So, if you don't mind, please say a little prayer for his safe return. Thank you. I will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I'm  keeping busy.  Here's the Susan Branch calendar for September. I love the little poem by Louisa May Alcott:

I used to be like that child, always doodling on my pages. I once was very artistic, but not so much anymore. It's one of those talents that if you don't use it, you lose it. Maybe if I really tried it would come back...but I just don't seem to have the drive for it anymore.

Oh, and this is on that calendar too: "Be Your Own Best Friend".  Well, yes, we need to take care of ourselves and be kind to ourselves, but we need good friends too. I appreciate having YOU as dear friends! Thank you.

This is a little sign of fall...that huge sycamore tree that we pass by on our walk is starting to turn golden. They are one of the first trees to lose their leaves here, and the leaves are HUGE!  We had four of these huge trees at our last house, and raking up those leaves was a bit of a pain!  I enjoyed the shade in the summer, but wasn't crazy about them in the fall! 

Back to the calendars:  Here's the Thomas  Kinkade one for September:

I love that scene, don't you?

And this is one of my favorite verses, which was on this particular calendar as well:

I love the little Chinese looking teapot on the Teapot Calendar for September.  Very colorful!

Below is a little teapot that I have that I like to set out in the fall because of it's colors. Although it says it was made in Austria, to me it has the look of a Chinese design. What do you think?

This is the back side of the design:

Here's a fun little quote from Rudyard Kipling:

Yes, if I didn't have any tea for a week it would feel like the "bottom is out of the Universe" to me as well! LOL.

Yesterday our church had a 5th Sunday Potluck dinner after church. Hubby took this picture of me with my mouth full!  Hello!

I took his picture and at least I had the decency to make sure his mouth wasn't full! LOL.  I was just so happy that he actually wanted to stay for the dinner. It's been a while since he felt like doing things at church, especially after church, when he'd like to be home taking a nap! So this is a good sign that he is truly getting better.  We still don't know for sure what was wrong, but we are very thankful that whatever it was seems to be going away. Praise God! Thank you for your prayers over the past few months!  I believe they have been answered.  And I am feeling much better too, so that is also a big answer to prayer.

As a matter of fact, I felt well enough last night to make myself a chocolate soda! I probably shouldn't have, but I just wanted one. Besides, the ice-cream we used had no sugar added and only 1/2 the fat, and it still tasted good!  The club soda used to make the soda has no sugar or calories at all, so the only real sugar was in the tablespoon of Hershey's chocolate syrup, which couldn't have been too much, right?  Oh, and one squirt of whipped cream! It was good, and sometimes we just need to treat ourselves.

Well, it is now 2:16 p.m.  I've been working on this post throughout the day as I have had time. I just went back outside a little while ago and walked around calling Blackie. I did also put a post on our community "Word of Mouth" Facebook page to see if anyone has seen him. I called my neighbor who used to feed the kitties before she got sick to see if she has heard or seen him over there. By the way, she is feeling much better now and is at home, but is not able to take care of the cats due to very decreased mobility. Anyway, no, she hasn't heard any strange noises under her house (where the cats used to go).  I went over and walked around there and called him and looked under there, but no sight or sound of him.  So we will wait and see if he shows up for supper around 4:00, and if not, maybe we'll take a ride a little further out in our neighborhood.   Sunshine has stayed close to the house all day and seems rather clingy.  I've asked him if he knows where Blackie could be, but he's not like the dog Lassie and hasn't tried to get me to follow him anywhere.  So we will just have to wait and pray.  Y'all knew I'd get attached to these cats, didn't you?  Yeah...I am. I am praying for the best outcome, but preparing myself for the possibility that Blackie may not come home.  Time will tell. Cats can be strange and they like to wander sometimes. We'll see...

Blackie and Sunshine last week. They sure love each other.

On that note, I will close this, but I will update it later if there is any good news. Meanwhile, this was on the Susan Branch calendar, and I love it:

Amen!

Happy Labor Day. (picture taken on that foggy morning.)

 

Thursday Thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends

Hello Everyone! Happy Thursday!

Morning's Sunrise

My current view out the window in "My Room with a View"

Sunshine and Blackie relaxing at the end of the day.

These signs were seen on the walls at our local "Nanna's Country Cafe" today. (more about that later).

 I wanted to thank you all for your kind and thoughtful comments on my last post HERE.  It seems like we've all had some experiences with negative commenters/spammers, anonymous and unknowns in the past.  The important thing is to always remember to be kind ourselves and be careful to always put our brain in gear before we put our mouth in motion!  Here is a Scripture verse from Psalms that is a good reminder:

Psalm 141:3 NKJV

"3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;

Keep watch over the door of my lips."

That, along with my "life verse" from Psalm 19:14:

Psalm 19:14 NKJV

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

If I could always remember to abide by these guidelines from God's Word, I know I would keep myself out of hot water with my tongue much better.  I've often had difficulty with "foot and mouth disease"...putting my foot in my mouth...and it is definitely something I've had to work on.  That's one reason I prefer to write instead of speak publicly.  I can edit and delete what I've written before publishing, but once the words leave my mouth there's no way to grab them back.  Sometimes I don't take time to proofread what I've written, and as soon as I hit "publish" I see my mistakes and then have to go back and fix it and pray no one was sitting right there ready to read it that quickly!   So yes, I know it can be difficult to always say the right thing and do the right thing, but spending time here in our blogging community has helped. You are all so kind and thoughtful and helpful...and that is a blessing to me every day! Thank you so much.

From Nanna's Country Cafe'

It's been a bit more of a quiet week. Today is actually our son's birthday, but we already celebrated with him over the weekend. Today he and his sweet wife had plans to go over and walk on the beach and then go into St. Augustine for lunch at a favorite seafood place. However, she woke up with a bit of a sick headache, and they got about half way there and decided to just stop at a local place and eat breakfast and then come back home.  Sometimes you just gotta listen to your body and do what is best. Thankfully our son is a sweet and thoughtful fella and he totally understood. He said he had plenty of things that needed to get done anyway in his workshop today, so he did that while she rested.  Hopefully Rose will be feeling better soon and they will have other opportunities to go do the things they had planned today.

From Nanna's Country Cafe'

Hubby and I decided to go into "town" this morning and do a little shopping. We went to Beall's Outlet and I actually found a a couple of fall tops at a very reasonable price. 

Perhaps my most favorite thing I decided to purchase were these hangers that have a kind of felt covering on them, so that silky tops and dresses won't slide off the hanger! I've been wanting these for a while, and so today was the day!! Now I just need to clean out some things in  my closet and rearrange stuff and use these on the things that need them most.

After we got back into our own little town from our shopping spree in "the big city", we decided to go out to lunch at our local "Nanna's Country Cafe'".  She's been telling us on Facebook that she's done some renovations and new decorations inside, so we decided to go check it out.  I thought this was the best "decoration" they had:

LOL.  I love this sign too:

Mooooove over...I want to see what she's eating!

I love the positive vibes they have going on in there. It made for a very "mooooving" experience. LOL. 

Well, as I was sitting here typing this post, I kept noticing that the skies were changing outside, and it just seemed like a good time to go outside and enjoy the cooler evening breeze before hopefully we get a thunderstorm.   I haven't been getting any good sunset photos yet because the sun is still setting a littler too far to the north west, plus Still Waters Pond is so dry that there's not enough water in it for any good reflections! But still the skies were looking interesting so I decided to go out and have a look. Here's what I saw and what happened next:

We had the grass cut the other day down along the shore, and because it is so dry, it just laid there in the sun and turned brown like hay.  Hay! Maybe it IS hay! Maybe we need one of those cows up there above to come eat some hay! LOL.

You can see that the pond is just a big mud hole basically right now. Pretty Ugly. (oxymoron!)

But if you look at the sun setting down behind the trees and focus on that and the beautiful clouds in the sky, it's still a lovely sight to behold!

We are supposed to be getting a thunderstorm right now, but so far I don't see or hear anything. It's been all around us this afternoon, but just seems to avoid us for some reason.

I love it when this happens...Sunshine decided to come join me on my little walkabout the yard...

Hello sweet Sunshine!!

I checked on the Zinnias, and there's still a few blooming, even though it's been so dry and I haven't been watering as much as I should...

We walked around to the front yard and could see the storm clouds forming in the east.  

By now hubby had come out to join me and then Sunshine decided to follow him back toward the house...

Blackie did not want to be left out, so he had also joined in our little walk, and then decided to take off and run and get ahead of everyone...I wish you could see how fast he was running in this picture!  It was like he was shot out of a cannon!  Sunshine is looking back to see if I'm still coming... I'm trying, Sunshine. I'm a little slow these days, but I'm coming!

Blackie beat everyone up the steps and then Sunshine ran up there to join him:

Then they did their usual checking each other over and making sure everyone is okay...and that was that. They are laying down out there now resting from their strenuous walk with us...and we are doing the same...resting in our chairs and thanking the Lord for a good day and so many blessings we can't count them.  The only thing that could make this day better would be some rain.

Oh, one more thing that made us happy this week...

I saw this picture of our grandson Noah and his mother Nicole on Facebook. They were on a "Mother/Son Day Trip" to Acadia National Park in Maine.

Since they live so far away from us we don't get to see them very often, so anytime there's a picture I'm claiming it! LOL.  And better yet, Noah sent us a nice long message bringing us up to date on his activities and happenings. It was really really good to hear from him and to know that both he and his mother are doing fine. That is an answer to many prayers.

Well, I guess that about sums up our week.  Here's a final thought, as we think about the horrific events in Minneapolis this week...we don't always understand why these things happen. There's so much sorrow, mental illness and hate in the world.  Our prayers are with those dear families who have lost sweet and precious children as well those who have been injured and hurt in their hearts because of this terrible event. May God be their comforter and healer. We can only put our trust in Him that He will be there for those dear ones and I pray that they will take refuge in Him. 

Amen.