Seventy is the birthday for a tea party in the garden room, and this invitation already smells like lemon cake. Watercolor lemons and jasmine climb the corners, thin gold vines run along the edges, a painted teacup waits at the bottom and the headline about tea, cake and good company is written in green and gold script.
Write her name in the big green script, add the date and the place, and the card is finished without another change. Everything else is painted in.
Set it for two in the afternoon, use the real china, and make three things well rather than ten things fast: scones, cucumber sandwiches and a lemon cake with candles. Have a grandchild read the birthday cards aloud. Print a few copies for the friends who still like paper; the rest can go by phone.
