Tea

(I seem to be back to back-dating entries, as my schedule this year has rarely afforded me the time to update on the day things happen. Or even necessarily in the next couple of days. So I'm writing this one a week after it happened.)

The highlight of the weekend was going over to my friend and former boss Genevieve's house for afternoon tea. She had visited my place some weeks back, since she lives nearby and she was indeed the one who recommended the real estate agent and mortgage broker I used. I'd never been over to her place, and she suggested that afternoon tea (as in Britain) would be a nice afternoon thing.

We arrived around 2 pm, after a pleasant walk over to her place. As soon as we arrived, Genevieve showed us around her yard. She's quite the gardener! She had had the concrete walk to her door pulled out and replaced it with stone steps, and her front yard was full of lovely plants she'd mostly put in herself, many of which were flowering. Indeed, I have some of the same plants in my yard, though she has more, and a wider variety.

We also met her cute and friendly outdoor cat - Kika, I think her name is. She was lying in the grass, and was happy to follow us around and get handled by both Debbi and myself.

She also has a lovely and productive lemon tree in her back yard, and several other flowers. Plus a patch of weeds which are pretty when they're producing yellow flowers, but apparently die to an ugly brown mess and are terribly hard to get rid of. Urgh! They weren't so bad, though, and I think Genevieve has spent more time working on her front yard than her back. She does have a nice garden around the side, though.

Genevieve went all out preparing tea, though: In addition to tea and lemonade (the latter home-made from her tree), she made cucumber sandwiches, little biscuits, a nut cake (walnut, I think), and had a supply of butter cookies. It was all entirely yummy, and left us all stuffed, I think. We also got to briefly meet her shy indoor cat, whose name I unfortunately forget.

We had a nice visit, and Genevieve gave me some food for my beleaguered dwarf orange tree, and loaned me her hand cart, with which I hope to move the orange tree upstairs to my porch, where it will get more sun. I've already been watering it more often, which I think was part of the problem the previous owner had with it: it was too dry. I've noticed lately that it seems to be getting ready to flower, which would be really neat.

I haven't been entirely bitten by the gardening bug yet, but I am coming to appreciate my own garden and others' as I see them and think about what I could do with mine. Of course, the previous owner did a great job setting up my yard, but I do want to try arranging container plants on my porch upstairs.

But there's no rush.