A compilations of A Return To Loveliness posts from A Delight Life.
Special Summer 
A Return to Loveliness 
blog party.
I will be hosting my seasonal
special post on 
Tuesday, June 21
Savoring Summer
Usually, I have those interested email me so that I might add their blog link to my sidebar and so that others can find them.
This time, I will add a Linky to the bottom of my post to all those interested to participate. Keeping it simple - it's Summer!
Also, there will be a special treat for those who participate! If you participated in the Spring blog party, you should know what I mean! 
I'd love for you to spread the word!
You can post this button on your sidebar to
share with your readers.


A Delightsome Life




Wishing you a very Delightsome day,


Happy Birthday
Queen Victoria






Born on May 24, 1819, Victoria has long inspired and intrigued women.
In the 1994 May issue of Victoria Magazine,
Nancy Lindemeyer shared, "I see ever more clearly in the life of Queen Victoria the same challenges contemporary women face in juggling career and family."


Victoria became Queen of England at a very young age and later married her beloved, Albert. She raised a large family, ruled a country
and enacted changes that have changed England.





Queen Victoria was an accomplished artist and an avid journalist.
In Carolly Erickson's book, "Her Little Magesty" 


Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee was noted indicating that the people 
of the country gathered to cheer their Queen with joy.




"The cheering was quite deafening," Carolly quotes from Victoria's journal,
"and every face seemed to be filled with real joy".
As a spontaneous singing of "God Save The Queen" erupted Carolly noted that 'waves of emotion seemed to pulse through the mass of humanity, tides of affection and sentiment and pride."


"The frail, child-sized figure in her carriage was the focus of all eyes, the tender object of all hearts...Victoria was the crown. Victoria was the empire. Victoria was the royal family. Victoria was Britain, her glory Britain's glory, her endurance Britain's triumphant durability in a world of change".












I will be commemorating Queen Victoria's birthday by watching one of my favorite movies, "Young Victoria". I will also share a sweet tea with my daughter in her honor.



A Return to Loveliness



Thank you for your visit,

A Return to Loveliness






Mothers


What greater joy can there be in this world than to be a mother.
Some of the most joyous times in my life were the few months
I carried my children close to my heart - when for a time
they were all my own. The bond began.


Then you behold their faces - their eyes look at you
and the bond deepened.
The times their little arms wrapped around your neck,


their first kiss on your cheek,
their tinkling laughter,


when they first call you Mama,
when they fall down and the only one they want to 
comfort them is Mom.
Through all the stages of the child's life to adulthood
we will be Mother - 


which means
sharing special moments,
creating a home filled with laughter and love,
gently and determinedly scolding when necessary,
providing a soft place to land,
providing encouragement and approval.


Providing a firm foundation.
We give of our all to our children
only to let them go to become their own person
to become mothers and fathers themselves.


Our hearts will forever be filled with joy mingled with sorrow.
To be a Mom is the greatest job and the greatest gift God can give a woman.




A moment of reflection - a time for tea - while reading Victoria Magazine.

Victoria Magazine recognized this quite often in the month of May - paying tribute to mothers in several ways.





"Who ran to help me when I fell, and who would some pretty story tell,
or kiss the place to make it well? My Mother" Ann Taylor
(Victoria Magazine 1997)



"Mama's order was heavenly, It had to do with thoroughness... 
and taking plenty of time. It had to do with taking plenty
of time with me". Susannah Lessard
(Victoria Magazine 1998) 


"Before becoming a mother I had a hundred theories
on how to bring up children. Now I have seven children
and only one theory: love them, especially when they least 
deserve to be loved." 
Kate Samperi


"There's much I wish I learned from my mother:
French seams, Southern chicken, patience, painting,
some medicine. For these things I have no aptitude.
But now, a mother myself, I crave a secret or two.
I want a garden, as she does with grace and 
love and skill.
We ordered bulbs together this summer. 
She claims to envy me my tulips. And I? I 
want only this, My son to say one day:
Everything grows in my mother's garden".
Linda Peterson, "Everything Grows in My Mother's Garden"



Catherine Calvert was a frequent contributing author to
Victoria Magazine. She wrote several of the articles on
Mothers. Catherine authored a number of books through Victoria Magazine and co-authored a book with 
one of our favorite Victoria Magazine Contributing Editors,
Tricia Foley




Thank you for joining me this week,
I wish you a very Delightsome week and 
especially a Blessed Mother's Day,

credits:
Some images taken from Victoria Magazine 1997, 1998 
paintings Mary Cassatt

A Return to Loveliness


Emelie Tolley
Victoria's Herb Lover
Emelie Tolley shared her love of herbs as a Contributing Editor of Victoria for several years. Having discovered herbs over 30 years ago, Emelie has not only written countless articles on herbs, but has also created a series of lifestyle books on herbs - their culinary uses, their medicinal uses, their beauty and their benefit to our health and beauty.
You are drawn into Emelie's world and adoration of herbs in her many Victoria Magazine articles.
In the April issues Emelie shared:

1990
"Smooth and Lavender'd"


"One of gardener's most fragrant rewards is a bed of lavender".
"Since the 16th century, professional perfumers and knowledgeable  woman have relied on the clean fragrance of lavender. Once it was common to see white linens spread over a lavender bush, absorbing its fragrance as it dried.
According to Emelie, lavender vinegar added to a bath 'sweetly restores the natural pH of the skin.

Lavender Vinegar Bath


1 pint cider vinegar
1/4 cup lavender heads
Method One:
Combine the ingredients in a covered glass bottle and set the bottle in the sun for two weeks.
Method Two:
Heat cider vinegar until it begins to steam, then pour over the lavender heads. Pour mixture into a glass bottle and cover. Let steep for two or three days. 
To Use for Bathing
After preparing either way, strain and then add 1/2  cup lavender vinegar to bath.
1992
"Glorious Disarray"

"I'd read books and studied pictures, but nothing in my American experience had prepared me for the pleasurable reality of walking through a landscape where lavender and roses scented the air, where borders were a painterly melange of color, texture, and foliage."
"Glorious dissaray is what I like in a garden," an English friend once announced, Emelie shared". Emelie's friend shared how she managed her glorious disarray in the garden. "Rather than planning growth, she worried about elimination. As her plants reseeded themselves, even on the gravel paths, she edited. 'If the effect is pleasing, I let it be. If not, I pull the seedlings'. 
The effect of a garden in glorious disarray is one of charm and fancy as you many never know what you'll come across.
1993
Adelma Grenier Simmons
'The Queen of Herbs'


Emelie interviews Adelma in her Connecticut herb garden, Caprilands. Adelma had adored the sight and scent of each herb plant and had spent her years teaching others 'to partake of its pleasures'.


"The best way to visit Caprilands' 30 gardens is of course with Adelma, but visitors to the Colonail scented geranium and salad gardens will feel as if she is at their side: 


all the plants are labeled to encourage knowledge of herbs".


1994
Spring Tonics

Emelie recalls special spring tonics that grandmothers used to use to revitalize one in the springtime after a long winter season of indulgences.
"For overall cleansing and toning, there is nothing better than greens packed with nutrients. Years ago herbs such as parsley, nettle, dandelion, borage, watercress and sorrel might have been added to spinach, asparagus, or celery in a lovely green soup with a chicken broth base. The combination can be turned into a juice so powerful it is best diluted with cooling cucumber juice".
1998
A Herbal Idyll




Emelie visits an herb farm in Fredericksburg, Texas where the owners share their 'romance with herbs'.
Bill and Sylvia Varney  owners of a B & B, Herb Haus share their love of herbs with Emelie as well as their herb and flower infused menus. This was Emelie's second visit to their Tea Shop - September 1990)
Some of the dishes shared in the article can be found in Bill and Sylvia's book, 'Along the Garden Path'.
"The herbs I choose for a dish are often just personal preference - or a matter of what's growing in the garden. But I always try to impart the romance of herbs when I cook. What excites me most is introducing people who know only herbs like parsley and chives to new and exciting flavors".
Emelie today continues to share her love and knowledge of herbs through books as well as a website - 
here she shares about herself, her 'Living With Herbs' blog, gardening with herbs, cooking with herbs, crafting with herbs, health and beauty with herbs and her shop.
We truly are the beneficiaries of Emelie's long passion for herbs and her imparting of this and of  her knowledge. 
I am thankful that Victoria Magazine saw the charm and the benefit of Emelie's knowledge to share with us for so many years.

Herbs in my garden

My 'glorious disarray'
lavender and roses
drying linen over lavender
potted herbs: Scented Geranium, Mint and Lemon Verbena
Rosemary and Roses at garden gate
Lambsear and Roses
Enjoying a morning cup of Camomile tea
in the garden
Thank you for your visit,






'
Always throw spilled salt over your shoulder
Keep rosemary by your garden gate
Plant roses and lavender for luck
And
Fall in love whenever you can'





As always, 
Wishing you a very Delightsome day,