Peridots to the end of summertime

August's gemstone of the month, the peridot, is under represented in my jewelry box, but I did find a couple of pieces to share...so to the deck!

It can’t be summer, --that got through;

It’s early yet for spring;

There’s that long town of white to cross

Before the blackbirds sing.

It can’t be dying,-- it’s too rouge,--

The dead shall go in white.

So sunset shuts my question down

With clasps of chrysolite.

~Emily Dickinson

So summer may not be quite "got through," but I am definitely ready for Ms. Dickinson's "rouge" season.  Especially when I go into one of my favorite stores (Homegoods) and they are already getting their fall/Halloween stuff out!  Also, I'm ready for an end to the heat and humidity! 

As for the tie in of that poem to today's post, chrysolite (and olivine for that matter) have both been used as names for peridots in literature and history.  Peridot has particularly interesting lore--when set it gold, it  dispels the "terrors of the night."  In fact, "the belief in the virtue of the peridot to dissolve enchantments and put evil spirits to flight was probably due to the association of the stone with the sun, before whose life giving rays darkness and all the powers of darkness were driven away."  The Curious Lore of Precious Stones:  Being a Description of their Sentiments, by George Frederick Kuntz, 1913.

Where time is drowned in odour-laden winds
And Druid moons, and murmuring of boughs,
And sleepy boughs, and boughs where apples made
Of opal and ruby and pale chrysolite
Awake unsleeping fires; and wove seven strings,
Sweet with all music...

The Shadowy Waters:  The Harp of Aengus

~Yeats

What a beautiful image of an apple orchard!

Ruby Red

For her worth is far above rubies...

Welcome to my first (and only) July post to celebrate the gemstone of the month (for a couple more hours at least)...the ruby!

Now I was thinking about what would be the best cup and saucer to set off my ruby and white topaz ring, and immediately thought of an old favorite--Old Country Roses.  But to spice it up a bit, I didn't go for a "normal" OCR...instead I pulled out my 25th anniversary OCR set...

The roses bloomed

An arbor filled

with deep ruby

fragrant yellows

and soft blushes

of pink petals.

accompanied by the OCR hat I made a couple of summers ago.

I feel as if I had opened a book and found roses of yesterday, sweet and fragrant, between its leaves.

~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island.

(This is how I feel every time a find a lovely L.M. Montgomery quote--so many great childhood memories among the pages of her books!)

O For a garden of the olden time
 Where none but long-familiar flowers grow,
 Where pebbled paths go winding to and fro,
And honeysuckles over arbors climb!
There would I have sweet mignonette and thyme,
 With hollyhocks and dahlias all arow,
 The hyacinth inscribed with words of woe,
The small blue-bell that beats a dainty chime
For elfin ears; and daffodillies, too,
 The sleepy poppy, and the marigold,
 The peony with petals manifold,
And ragged-robins, pink and white and blue.
 All these and more I'd have, and back of all
 A thousand roses on a mossy wall!

~John Russell Hayes, An Old-Time Garden

Springtime Bunnies

The birds sing their songs

pairing two by two

and bunnies softly step

through fields of swaying daffodils.

All who come will

witness something wonderful

an Easter awakening

as, from what once had fallen,

comes a new life.

And speaking of wonderful,

the White Rabbit would reply,

this place is Wonderland

And in Wonderland...

“Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take less," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take more than nothing."

  

To which Alice replied

"Nobody asked your opinion"

Then to the hare, reminiscing,

Is it tea for two

or two for tea?

 But won't the White Rabbit

soon join me?

I followed this place

and don't know the way home.

I fear that soon

 I will have to stay

 forever.

(my new Shelley set, a surprise find after we went for a drive and somewhat got lost, sort of)

Alice finally sat

and took a teacup

one of two with flowers

pink, white, blue, and green,
As the Hare returned with
the White Rabbit
and readied to pour the tea.

(the other set I found on that same trip)

But Alice rests her cup on its side,

still thinking deep thoughts

then asks

"How long is forever"?

To which the White Rabbit answers,

"Sometimes just one second."

Think Alice of the daffodil

Sunny and bright

as the day

until it is night.

Just so the daffodil blooms

until it does not.

What is forever

 to the daffodil?

Then the white rabbit sprang up

with some trepidation

But, alas, I don't have forever,

not even one second.

I'm late! he exclaimed

I'm late!  For a very important date!

Now no time to say

"Hello/Goodbye,"

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.

I'll share the recipe for scones--carrot cake of course since we have a tea of hares and rabbits-- later this week.  I hope you had a wonderful Easter! 

**Note:  This post contains shameless use of quotes from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll for my own purposes mixed in with my own verse.



The Aquamarine

But what is water without tea?

Cool and aqua blue

I grant you, 

But caffeinated and hot,

sadly not.

~Carrie

(Wouldn't this make for a pretty broach...it's 1000 carats!)

The aquamarine for March's gemstone of the month post required some extra thinking on my part as my jewelry box is completely empty of this stone.  Rather than cheating and using a much cheaper topaz, I figured I would go to where I could see huge aquamarines of all types--the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. (which also happens to be not far from where I work)!



Sadly the Hope Diamond wasn't on display, but there was plenty of the light blue aquamarines to feast my eyes on, both in faceted



and very much uncut form.

I found it interesting just to compare the many different ways the stone develops. 

I also learned some interesting facts while I was reading the displays at the museum.  Aquamarine is the common name for the light blue version of beryl.

All of these stones are beryl, from the emeralds (yes real emeralds!), on the left, past the pinkish morganite, onto the yellow beryl (also called heliodor), to the green beryl in the front middle, with aquamarines on the right and the small display of red beryl (marketed as red emerald) in the front right.  Red beryl is very rare.

The aquamarine gets its name from the Latin, Aqua Marina, which means "Sea Water," due to its pretty blue color, of course.  With that in mind, there is only one set in my collection that would be the perfect match for this gem...

The Cliffs of Dover by Paragon.  The plate has the better view of the beautiful ocean against the white cliffs of Dover:

There'll be bluebirds over

the white cliffs of Dover

Tomorrow

Just you wait and see.

~Vera Lynn



Amethyst Teatime

This week I'm sharing the next tea party in my gemstones of the month series--February's amethyst!

Of course what else would share the table with lovely amethysts then my violet dishes?

A violet by a mossy stone

Half-hidden from the eye!-

Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

~William Wordsworth



And to add a touch more elegance, I've placed Lady Caroline at the Opera by Coalport on the table.

Grand rooms and sparkling chandeliers

glimpsed in flickering candlelight

Gold and glitter thin veneers,

over silks of malachite,

amethyst, lapis lazuli, and jade

bright notes amidst their promenade.

~Caroline at the Opera, Carrie

I can just see the ladies at the turn of the century in their finery in the gorgeous Opera in Paris.

I had to work a bit over the weekend, but I had plans to go visit my aunt and uncle in Winchester.  Luckily for my mental state, they were nice enough to come out and see me, which saved me the driving time (and they brought me lunch/dinner for later!).  I still had the table set for my "amethyst" tea, so I just added one more place setting (one of the ones I just got from my sister),

baked some scones and set out some leftover chocolates from Valentine's Day and a couple shortbread cookies from a tin,

and instant tea luncheon!  I served two scones:  lavender and peaches and cream.  They were some of my freezer stock--I like to keep a few scone logs in my freezer so I have them for impromptu get-togethers.



 Aunt Becky also brought out two new teas for us to try that she bought at Everything Tea in Bedford, PA.  She said she had opened her cabinet and they fell out and she realized she hadn't tried them yet!  Very lucky for me ;).  This tea is Raspberry Truffle, and was a lovely red tinted color.

The tea was predominately raspberry with just a hint of chocolate flavor.  Delicious!  She ended up giving it to me so I'll be able to enjoy even more cups!

Thanks for joining me!  I'm linking too:

Bernideen's Tea Time, Collage, and Garden Blog Party 

 No Place Like Home

Tuesday Cuppa Tea



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