There are signs of life all over the garden

Rhubarb

Narcissus 

Snowdrops

Blueberry buds

Pansies...a bit slug chewed, but pretty

Citrus...how lucky are those of us with greenhouses

Today my first Meyer Lemon of the year was ready to pick. Several Oranges were ripe too. Here is the bounty.

Okay, maybe it isn't really a bounty per se, but that lemon is gorgeous. I wish you could smell what I smell. 

Look at the size of it.

Here is the 'bounty' again with a Christmas gift I received for scale. Okay, I just wanted to put a tractor in the picture. 

My old favorite brand of tea was the only one tested with 0% pesticide residue!!! I'm baaaack.

Good old Red Rose was the tea my beautiful Grandmother drank every day. She would make us cups of sweet creamy tea. I must have been about 7 when we started drinking tea together. I drank Red Rose until my forties then switched to herbal teas for the health benefits. After two decades of drinking Celestial Seasonings {organic and fair trade} they were sited by the FDA for having over the legal limits of pesticides. REALLY!! So I started making my own organic herbal teas. Then I saw a report that when teas were tested in Canada, the only one that contained 0% pesticides was....that's right, Red Rose Tea. So I'm back. Yummmm. I've missed it. 

I just love this old masher.

I don't remember who originally gave me this wonderful old potato masher. I love it. I confess I used to put it in the dishwasher before I realised how evil they are for precious old Pyrex, so now I always hand wash it. This is the masher drying out after mashing a Stock Pot of mashed potatoes Christmas Day.

How do we fit in 12 for Christmas Dinner?

We have a small house. But the one thing we have is lots of....chairs.....oh and wine glasses. Look, we had sunshine on Christmas Day.

We used our everyday table. Then we set up two more six foot tables. It was so fun. The tables went through our little dining room and right into the living room. Which meant we had to scootch the couch right up to our front window. We were actually laughing at it. 

Here is Allan on the couch in our three foot living room. 

Lit up the Shaw Fireplace channel. Turned on the music. 

David Winter cottages. Love them. 

And Ivy enjoying the new cat toys with catnip. Thank you grandma and auntie.