Happy Birthday, Tasha Tudor!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am terrible with Time, and have a tendency to lose track of it, and then go wandering about the house in search of where it has gone.

So it should be no surprise that in the five years since I first heard of about just how interesting a life Tasha Tudor lead, I have not realized it was her birthday until that evening twice, and have missed it completely three times…

But not this year!

This year I actually was reminded on August 27^th that dear Ms Tasha Tudor was turning 104 the next day ~ and so my dreams were off!

Luckily, in a house with three cats, an extended family of dolls, many teacups, it is never very too difficult to make an afternoon feel like something out of a Tudor picture book ~ you just have to be in the right mindset. As I can never really depend upon myself to be full of vigor and vim when I want to be, I’ve become fairly adept at setting low expectations and being pleasantly delighted if those expectations are exceeded. A bit pathetic sounding I know, but I’ve found myself to be happily surprised more often than disappointed, so it works well for me!  

So, plans for a tea time for the next day began, including getting Ophelia and Imogen Bergamot out of their cedar drawer and into their best clothes, deciding on the prettiest china teacup, checking the garden for which flowers are ready to be picked, and thinking of different easy baking that I could do if I feel up to it tomorrow ~ while knowing there is a packet of gluten free chocolate covered biscuits in the pantry as my backup plan.

Of course, the best laid plans…

We have a trio of very strange cats, and when our old man cat, James, snuck out the back door with me when I went to gather flowers, the two younger girls went berserk. For the rest of the day the girls acted like they had forgotten who James was, and every time they caught a glimpse of him a huge three way cat fight would be sparked again!

After breaking up a half dozen fights, and grabbing a little nap, I finally managed to get the flowers in a vase,  make myself a cup of tea, and get out my Tasha Tudor books. Each book has such beautiful photographs, they transport you right to her New England farm, and spark dreams of gardens out of fairy tales and houses filled with a thousand old treasures.

I believe the extended Bergamot doll family may be plotting a very long list of clothing they wish me to make after seeing some of the pictures. I on the other hand am swooning over her walking spinning wheel and that beautiful old loom.

Someone has posted a few clips of the Japanese Tasha Tudor documentary, and I definitely suggest taking a look! It is so neat seeing her walking through her gardens, and putting a voice to her lovely paintings.

Now I am going to curl up with The Secret Garden and get lost in Tasha’s water colored flowers.

I hope you had a beautiful day today, that you managed to find a few quiet moments to enjoy the simple happiness of beautiful books, old dolls, or a hot cup of tea.

And as Tasha Tudor would say,

Take Joy!

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* The books in this post that I have been enjoying today are: The Private World of Tasha Tudor; Tasha Tudor's Heirloom Crafts; Tasha Tudor's Dollhouse; Tasha Tudor's Garden; and The Secret Garden, illistrated by Tasha Tudor :)
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By the by, if anyone has experience with cat troubles like this, please let me know! We have been dealing with this spontaneous fighting for the past six months, have brought them to the vet and all seems well. We use cat pheromones, catnip, anything we can think of, but Charlotte especially will go from curling up next to James for a nap, to acting like he is an evil invader howling and hissing and chasing him around the house. The poor old thing can hardly get a moment’s peace some days!