Saturday Morning Tea

Nov17

Pouchong tea. Is it a green tea or is it an Oolong tea? Technically, it is described as a slightly oxidized, or fermented, green tea. Well, so is Jade Oolong tea lightly oxidized. Hmmmm, isn’t it interesting how we as humans always like to put things in a category? Give a label? I like the idea of this tea being in its own little group, its own little tribe. The leaf is very large and twisted and pleated. I had fun arranging the wet leaf in a curling pattern, one leading to the other. The dance of the leaf tribe.

Pouchong tea is produced in the Fujian province of China and also in Pinglin Township near Taipei, Taiwan. This tea is often used in scented tea such as jasmine. It doesn’t have the vegetal quality of a green tea but is more floral like a green Oolong.

This morning as I get ready for my show, I am sipping a Formosa Pouchong tea. The liquor is light and fragrant and the aroma of flowers gently drifts from my cup. The floral quality is also apparent in the taste with a light honey note. It reminds me of Jade Oolong but not as heavy sweet. A perfect cuppa to start the day as I venture out to my show on this cold clear morning!

Slow Time

Nov16

I’ve recently started working with a book called “Slow Time” by Waverly Fitzgerald. I had first become acquainted with Waverly’s work when I used to subscribe to SageWoman, a magazine devoted to Goddess lore and Earth based spirituality. I was fascinated by her thoughts about the cycle of the seasons and her words resonated on a very deep level within my soul.

The book is set up in a 12-week format and it is filled with exercises and questions that help you explore your relationship with time. Speaking of time, I have been busy getting ready for my annual jewelry show tomorrow so I haven’t exactly been following it by a weekly schedule. I am reading and absorbing and exploring in my own “slow time”.

The subtitle to the book is “Recovering the Natural Rhythm of Life”.

As I was reading Richard Bode’s “Beachcombing at Miramar” last night, these words jumped out at me.

“I believe there is a clock within me, a living clock, and it keeps pace with the beat of the world. I hear the slow ticktock of the planet when I stand in a salt marsh or walk the sands of Miramar, and I lose it the instant I slip behind a steering wheel. The moment I exceed the speed at which I was born to move, I lose the tempo of the natural world and become like a singer who has lost the rhythm of his song.”

This passage stayed with me long after I had read it. As we move through our days faster and faster, here, there and everywhere, work, school, errands, etc., are we losing our natural rhythms? The speed we were born to move? I wonder about these things.

An Autumn Bead Crochet Bracelet

Nov14

More bead crochet exploring. This time I used Perle Cotton 8 thread with size 6 glass beads. The black stripes on orange remind me of autumn and Halloween so I created a polymer clay pumpkin bead for the clasp.

So far, I like this thread the best in feel and ease of crocheting. The black color of the thread was a little tricky to find the stitch to go into but my hook slid into the stitch a lot easier than the C-lon cord. That was too stiff for my beginning skill level. This thread also gives a slinky supple feel to the finished bracelet which is a wonderful feeling on my wrist.

The loop for the clasp is a single crochet with the same thread. I then sewed terra cotta colored seed beads around the loop.

What I really loved in creating this bracelet is that it combined 3 techniques – polymer clay sculpture, bead weaving and bead crocheting.

I chose the blue graduated background because it reminds me of a clear autumn sky and it accentuates the orange beads. I love looking to nature for inspiration even in something simple like choosing a background for photography.

Saturday Morning Tea

Nov10

My kindred friend Laura adores Earl Grey tea so this Saturday Morning’s cuppa is in honor of her. As the pigeon tribe from the building across the street wheels across the sky, I look out over the treetops onto a cloudy cool mid-fall day and open my journal to a new page. There is still a blaze or two scattered across the countryside but most of the trees have now muted to a rusty color. Nature is starting her slumber.

Earl Grey tea is traditionally a black tea that has been scented with the essential oil of the bergamot orange, a small fragrant citrus fruit grown in the Calabria province of Italy. The bergamot orange is not a variety of the sweet orange that most of us are familiar with eating but a hybrid between a pear lemon and a Seville orange, or bitter orange.

Legend has it that the son of a Chinese bureaucrat was rescued from drowning by a servant of the second Earl Grey, Charles Grey, Prime Minister of England from 1830-1834. The man was so grateful that he presented Earl Grey with a special tea. Earl Grey liked it so much that he gave a sample of it to his favorite tea purveyor and asked them to replicate the flavor.

I am enjoying a cup of a flavored Earl Grey called Creme Vanilla. The aroma is sweet and creamy, reminding me of the cream sodas I used to love when I was young. The flavor is an interesting blend of citrus and vanilla which I especially like. It’s strong enough for milk but sweet enough for no sweetener added.

I really like the story behind this tea – a gift of a special tea bestowed in gratitude for saving a life.

What is your experience with Earl Grey tea?

October Journal Page Progress

Nov3

The idea for my October beaded journal page has been gestating for the last couple of months. It all started with the image of a candle illuminating the darkness, which came to me during a meditation one day. I thought about the candle as being a wonderful symbol for all of the aha moments I have been experiencing in my life this year. I added the oval moon face but instead of this representing the obvious (a moon), it will symbolize the face of my serene Higher self. I made a little mask from polymer clay leaf canes. As the candle burns brightly and illuminates, the mask falls away and reveals my Higher self. There is much more work to be done on this piece but I am pleased on its progress so far. I have a jewelry show in 2 weeks so a lot of my time is being devoted to getting ready for that. So, this page will emerge a bit behind schedule but its slow progress can also be representative of the slow emergence of my authentic Higher self.