Poppies and sunflowers

August's flower of the month is the poppy, which, in keeping with my "flowers of the month" theme this year, is the inspiration for this week's tea party.

Through dancing poppies stole

a breeze most solfly lulling to my soul

~John Keats

The beautiful embroidered runner is a gift from my mother.

I set the table with my two sets of red china:

(Rosenthal)

(Royal Albert's Lady Hamilton)

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.  It's what sunflowers do. 

~Helen Keller



With pretty yellow sunflowers and poppies as the theme, what else could I serve at this little tea party then lemon poppy seed scones?

Lastly, I placed my one Sadler teapot on the table:

Poppies have also been the flower of death, life, and remembrance since World War I and the poem, "In Flanders Fields" by Canadian officer Col. John McCrae:  "In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row..."



Summer sorrows

The sunflower raises its head

as spots of sunshine fall

on mouths eager to be fed,

standing tall,

above all.

But golden beauty pales

next to wild fields of red,

where man's travails

once bled,

upon the flowers' bed.

Yet blooms once crushed

return anew,

shyly awakening brushed

 with morning dew,

tears overdue.



And on that solemn note, I am joining these tea parties this week:

Tea Cup Tuesday ~ http://www.marthasfavorites.com/
Tuesday Cuppa Tea~ http://www.antiquesandteacups.info/

Bernideen's Friends Sharing Tea 

Rose Chintz Cottage's Tea Time Tuesday