Tea Party/Swap 2014

Last evening was my annual Tea Party/Swap....an evening with my closest girlfriends, where we sit and sip tea and sample a wide array of baked goodies and have an never ending chat shop.
A hen party extraordinaire.
I spent most of my day preparing and baking, and waited excitedly for my girlfriends to arrive at the 4.30pm appointed time.
It's always good to have all my girlfriends that live on the island together in one place...my home for an evening of sisterhood bonding.
A month in advance an invitation is sent out with a reminder to gather 5 items to contribute to the swap. This can be anything that is no longer needed, wasn't needed in the first place, or just sharing garden bounty, whether plants or fruits and vegetables.
I always put the extra tables out early for the swap items since some of my friends like to deliver their items early before the evening's event.
This year my theme colours were pink and white for the decor.

 

Tea Party Buffet Table

Left to Right: Various Cheeses with cherries, Raisin Cookies, Potato Balls, Pumpkin/Corned Beef fritters, Carrot Ginger sandwiches, Heart Marshmallows, Pizza Bakes, Veggie Roll ups, Chocolate Rum Balls, Cheese Sandwiches.

On the stands Top to Bottom: Lemon Tartlets, Miniature Rock Cakes, Vanilla and Chocolate Cupcakes

I had prepared a feast of goodies, but then my "girls" showed up with even more goodies...the table was full to capacity and some goodies spilled over to the counter top as well.
Goodies like Peach upside-down cake, chocolate swirl cake, various flavours of danishes, coconut creme pie, fruit salad and black fruit cake.

Juices of every flavour including mango pomegranate

What a lovely evening filled with riotous laughter and great camaraderie, since quite a few of the girls are natural comediennes.
No topic was taboo, and we voiced our opinions on a number of headlining topics here on the island and trending worldwide.....it's always good to hear how others feel about a topic.

My bounty from the swap

Another lovely tea party/swap evening.....I am truly thankful for my girlfriends....they all contribute something of substance to my life.....thank you ladies for being my friend.
I love having my girls over, we always have sooooo much fun.

International Jazz Day

 Oh Happy Day!!
Special day today for me....today was International Jazz Day....a day to celebrate jazz the world over.

A few years ago, back in November 2011, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) officially designated April30 as International Jazz Day.
 
I don't need a special day to celebrate jazz music....it is already embedded in my soul....it caresses my tired body at night before I drift off to sleep.....it keeps my psyche intact.
My world would be empty without jazz....yes, it would be.
Even though I spent the day in the kitchen preparing for my hen party tomorrow, I was surrounded by lovely jazzy music from a few of my favourite guys.
I would have given an arm and a leg and ten toes to have been in Osaka, Japan today.
Oh Happy Day!!
Hope you had a wonderful jazzy day too.

More info here and here.

National Heroes Day

Today was National Heroes Day, a public holiday on the island.
Every year on April 28th we celebrate National Heroes Day to honour the lives and contributions of ten outstanding individuals who helped to shape our island into what it is today.

The correct title for our National Heroes is "The Right Excellent."

Our ten National Heroes are listed below according to the order they fall in the picture above.

^{The Right Excellent Bussa - an African slave killed during the 1816 slave revolt.
The Right Excellent Sarah Ann Gill (1795-1866)
The Right Excellent Samuel Jackman Prescod (1806-1871)}
 The Right Excellent Dr, Charles Duncan O'Neal (1879-1936)
The Right Excellent Clement Osbourne Payne (1904-1941)
The Right Excellent Sir Grantley Herbert Adams (1898-1971)
The Right Excellent Sir Errol Walton Barrow (1920-1987)
The Right Excellent Sir Hugh Worrell Springer (1913-1994)
The Right Excellent Sir Garfield St.Auburn Sobers (1936-Present)
The Right Excellent Sir Frank Leslie Walcott (1916-1999)

The National Heroes Gallery, an interactive museum is located in the West Wing of the Parliament Building. It is dedicated to telling their stories and providing valuable insight into the contributions that they made to the island. 

You may read more here .
And also have a read here.

Grow your own Food Expo

Earlier in the week I had received this email invite to a Grow Your Own Food Expo at a local garden centre.

Today being my jaunt day, I thought it would be good to check it out.
Even though we're experiencing a drought, I needed to plant a few more edibles in my herb/veggie garden.
Of course the kale in the advert caught my eye, and I had a vision of me returning home with a large tray of kale seedlings.

I arrived early for the 9am start, and waited patiently, not realising that the store had kept its regular  eight o'clock opening hour.
There were quite a few shoppers on the inside by the time I pushed the door to enter the store.

A good selection of seedlings

The kale was already potted......not the seedling trays I had hoped for so I did not purchase any.

The vendors on the outside had lovely produce displays which I couldn't resist.
I bought some okras and cucumbers.

The Butterfly Choice Mulch stall caught my interest.

Operated by the SBRC (Sustainable Barbados Recycling Centre Inc.)

Various blends of mulches made from 100% recycled organic materials were available for sale.

Coconut & Wood Mulch is porous and repels snails, and provides a protective layer over the soil surface hence reducing water cost  and suppressing weeds.
Green Waste Mulch is an excellent organic soil cover which improves the drainage of clay soil and reduces soil erosion.  It can also be used as a raw material by adding manure for composting.
Wood Chip Mulch is a decorative medium for covering footpaths and makes a great weed suppressant.

 I was happy to see this banner and to learn that this service was available to us plant lovers when we have a problem with diseased plants.

I tried the Jergens lotion and liked the Aloe/Cucumber one the best.

Who can pass up free Dannon yogurt at the sample stall?

I enjoyed a blueberry-flavoured one.

Plant purchases were placed not too far away while the samples were enjoyed.

Cookies......

 ....and Costa Rican gourmet coffee were also sampled.

I guess you're wondering if I didn't purchase any seedlings since the kale packs were not available...well yes I did.

Two six pack trays of lettuce of different varieties.  I can't wait to enjoy them.
I planted them in this evening when the sun was lower in the sky and gave them a good watering to make them comfy.  I hope they do well.

A day of honour

If my Mum were still with us, she would have celebrated her 85th birthday today.
To honour her memory, I spent the day working outside in the back garden where she loved to relax by gardening.

We are almost at the end of April, and still no sign of our April showers.  We could use some rain.
Outside is dry and hot, and the earth is cracked.  Even though the grass is brown and crispy, there was still lots of trimming to be done.  Cutting dry brown grass is definitely not fun....dust flying every which way and the grass cuttings making you sneeze for evermore....not fun at all.
By ten o'clock I had had enough of the sun, and the grass.
Hustling inside, I rinsed my favourite mug to make myself a cool drink of one of our local drinks...mauby, a great thirst quencher.  As I started to dry my mug with the dish towel, it fell from my hands and crashed to the floor.

 You know that slow motion thing when you can see what is about to happen, but yet you know you can't do anything about it......because you just can't.
I saw my mug falling to the floor, but my hands just did not engage to break its fall....it was as if they knew it didn't make any sense trying.
Brownie realising that something was amiss decided that he should come into the kitchen to investigate, and I had to chase him away several times before he stayed away, while I cleaned the broken slivers up carefully from the floor...I did not want him to get any of the broken pieces in his paws.
I found him a few minutes later sleeping like nobody's business.

 

 Ain't life grand when you can sleep comfortably with your foot cocked up in the air??

My friend Paul had brought me some lunch from his lunch lady yesterday...it is always a healthy portion, and I am never able to eat it in one go.  Today I had leftovers.

Macaroni pie, rice and peas, baked chicken, steamed veggies and a tossed salad as it arrived yesterday.

Today was my Mum's birthday, and I know that she was with me in the beauty of the garden in spirit.
Happy Birthday Mum!!!