Please join me on a walk through the countryside of England...
Through verdant pastures...
Dotted with sheep...
Why, there's one around every turn!
And there are fragrant bowers of roses...
Amidst pagoda-shaped garden follies...
And garden urns in a state of pleasing decay...
I took a cue from the name of Mikasa's pattern, English Countryside...
And built this tablescape from there...
With things I had on hand...
Mixing high and low...
Like Gorham crystal (I invited the bon ton... King Edward and Lady Anne), Gorham silver bread plates, and little Herend critters on leaves...
Mixed with salt and pepper artichokes found at the hardware store...
Chantilly flatware mixed with grassy green place mats from WalMart...
Antique napkin rings and heirloom linens...
Mixed with refugee lambs...
Strays from some long-lost nativity sets...
And everything centered around a few dollars worth of grocery store roses from Publix...
With some alstroemeria lilies thrown in for color and good measure...
Now, you know how I love to play with my dishes, and I did that with these dinner plates in English Countryside, which I enjoy because they can be dressed up...
Or dressed down as they were when I used them in a very casual tablescape with a patchwork quilt and fuzzy ducks for spring HERE...
And another for St. Patrick's Day found HERE ...
While in the next few shots, I brought in four slightly different salad plates in the very dressy Duke of Gloucester pattern by Mottahedeh...
And enjoyed seeing just how these salad plates looked against the "texture" on the Mikasa dinner plates...
I thought the Duke was the perfect plate to introduce in this pastoral English theme...
With all of that fruit and even an insect or two...
I also think he looks rather handsome with the artichokes, don't you?
But Mikasa has several different salad/accent plates that go with their English Countryside pattern, and I selected the peach...
And the pear for this table...
And I threw in an extra pear next to the floral arrangement just because! ;-)
Now, that we've set the table, I'd like to serve what I think is the perfect recipe for dessert, a poem by Keats...
To A Friend Who Sent Me Some Roses
As late I rambled in the happy fields,
What time the sky-lark shakes the tremulous dew
From his lush clover covert;—when anew
Adventurous knights take up their dinted shields:
I saw the sweetest flower wild nature yields,
A fresh-blown musk-rose;
'twas the first that threw its sweets upon the summer:
Graceful it grew
As is the wand that Queen Titania wields.
And, as I feasted on its fragrancy,
I thought the garden-rose it far excell’d:
But when, O Wells! thy roses came to me,
My sense with their deliciousness spell’d:
Soft voices had they, that with tender plea
Whisper’d of peace, and truth, and friendliness unquell’d.. -- John Keats
Thank you so much for visiting me today, and I also want to thank those of you who have kept us in your prayers this summer. You will never know how much it was appreciated and how much you are loved. These roses, arranged in the spring, are my gift to you.
Now, let's go join Susan the lovely hostess of Tablescape Thursday and all of her friends HERE to see more tablescapes this week. I look forward to visiting you as well!
Warmly,
Mrs. Magpie (Sheila)
English Countryside Equipage:
Dinner Plates: Mikasa's English Countryside
Peach and Pear Salad Plates: Mikasa' English Countryside
Fruit Salad Plates: Mottahedeh's Duke of Gloucester
Flatware: Chantilly by Gorham
Stemware: Lady Anne and King Edward by Gorham
Silver Bread Plates: Gorham
Flowers: Publix
Garden Urns: Dockside Imports (no longer in business)
Bunnies and Butterflies on leaves: Herend
Artichoke Salt and Pepper Shakers: Local Ace Hardware
*Linens and Silver Napkin Rings: Vintage/Antiques
*Thank you to my sweet Adelaide, the Queen of Tablescapes, who, for this spring tablescape, loaned me her napkins because mine weren't pressed and who loaned me her napkin rings because mine needed to be polished. This post (and my heart) are dedicated to her, my dear friend, now departed to greener pastures.
