Saturday Morning Tea

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In continuing with my fervent wishes for spring to arrive, I am sipping a very fragrant Floral Tie-Guan-Yin Oolong this morning. Inhaling the aroma of this tea brings memories of that first moment in late spring when you are standing by an open window and the breeze brings in the heady scent of lilac to fill your senses.

Aromatherapy in a cup to dispel the iciness of a long, harsh winter that is still hanging on into February.

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The leaves are intensely green, especially after steeping, and rolled into curled shapes during processing. This tea is lightly oxidized making it more like a green tea, with vegetal notes in the flavor. The lilac fragrance bursts its sweetness in my mouth with each sip.

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This tea is named after Guan Yin (also spelled Quan Yin or Kwan Yin), the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. Well loved by her people, there are many stories about her kindness and compassion. It is said that she was a Buddhist many years ago and, after living a life filled with great love and giving, she had earned her place in Nirvana, or heaven. As she was passing through the gates, she heard a cry of anguish come from the Earth. She decided to turn back to the earth and find her immortality in the hearts of the suffering. Her Chinese name roughly translates to “The One Who Hear the Cries of the World”.

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I steeped the leaves in water under the boiling point (about 190 degrees F) for 3 minutes. The leaves gently released and opened during their time in the hot water. It’s like a tea leaf’s little hot tub. Aaahhhh…..

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The liquor is a very pale straw color, the same color as my new teabowl. I purchased a set of 4 teabowls from In Pursuit of Tea. Handmade in Japan, each tea bowl hold approximately 4 ounces. Very sweet.

A kind word is like a spring day.

~Russian Proverb

Studio Wednesday

Feb4

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I first discovered polymer clay in the early 90s when I wanted to expand my bead collection for my jewelry making. Over the years I’ve tried many different polymer techniques ranging from caning to faux stones to mokume gane. With the exception of free-form mokume gane, none have resonated with my spirit like sculpting and carving polymer clay and glazing it with soft colors.

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Getting back to my studio after a several month healing period has brought me to a new place. A place of awakening forms and carved thoughts, covered in gentle glazes. Knotting pearls one by one on hand-dyed silk cord.

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I feel myself moving in a new direction with my jewelry. I don’t know where this is leading me. Like Persephone being drawn to the fissure in the earth, there is a softening and opening in my psyche that is calling to me. All I need to do is listen…

Saturday Morning Tea

Jan31

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This week brought another snow and ice storm to our area. As the piles of snow around our driveway grow and grow, it definitely heightens my focus in on the moment. That moment being one of gingerly walking to the car or to get the mail. Or, backing oh so slowly out of the driveway, more listening for cars in the road than being able to see them. So, when a day dawns clear and bright and the temps promise to reach freezing or a little above, we New Englanders celebrate. Tomorrow is February and spring is getting closer!

This morning’s tea is a real treat with a very interesting name. A China black called Golden Monkey Imperial. Its name comes from ancient legends of monkeys being trained to pick tea leaves from tea trees growing on high cliffs in mountainous areas.

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This tea comes from a very fine plucking of the top leaf and bud of the tea plant. I have read that it is the black tea equivalent of Silver Needles white tea. The leaves are very oxidized and dark with golden threads weaving through the dark needles. It is grown in Fujian province in China.

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When I opened my packet to spoon the tea leaves into my teapot, I was greeted by such a strong aroma of bittersweet cocoa. mmmmmm… For a chocolate lover like myself, I was already in heaven even before my first sip! The tea liquor is very full-bodied with strong cocoa notes and a whisper of sweet dried fruit. There is a little tang in the finish. This tea is definitely strong enough for the addition of milk and sweetener but I recommend drinking it straight for the full effect of its amazing flavor.

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I am headed out the door soon to spend the day with a very dear friend of mine, a kindred art spirit. We’ll start our day with a lunch at Panera. I’m thinking of a steaming bowl of broccoli cheddar soup with fresh, crispy bread on the side. How about a cup of hot chocolate with a dollop of whipped cream? Then it’s off to the local bead store, armed with a gift certificate I received at Christmastime. Then we’ll go to my friend’s home, light a cozy fire in the fireplace and drink lots of tea while we chat and catch up on each others lives. A perfect day…

“It is a sweet thing, friendship, a dear balm,
A happy and auspicious bird of calm…”
~Shelly

Yarn Adventures

Jan28

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I find that as I get older, winter’s icy fingers burrow farther into my bones and muscles and no matter how many wooly layers I wrap myself in, I just can’t get warm enough. So, before the holidays, my desire to steep myself in warmth gently nudged me to seek out one of my passions that was now buried in tote bags in the back of my closet. Balls of yarn in colors rich as jewels – amethyst, carnelian and ruby – spilled out onto the floor all around me like found treasure as I rummaged through my bags. I sat down with my long metal crochet hook and my big round balls of yarn and created long strips of color blocks that I then wove together with a tapestry needle, one by one. As my blanket grew, it cocooned around me, warming my body and my heart with the rhythm of the colorful stitches.

I was happy when I finally finished my blanket but sad to give up the meditative state of the needles so I dug back into my bags to unearth another ball of yarn in a gentle sage green with silky flecks of brown, green and blue. I created a scarf and then when that was done, it was back to my yarn stash. Now a ball of shiny ruby red. Another scarf. Hey, this is as addicting as beading. I wrote about making the blanket and 2 scarves here.

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Before I left for my annual holiday trek to Michigan, my Mom told me not to bring any art projects with me because she had gone to the knitting store and picked up something for us to do. Oh joy, another adventure in knitting! As the fairy lights twinkled like stars on my parents’ Christmas tree, I made my first pair of mittens out in snowy Michigan. While I was happily knitting away, I thought that it would be so nice to be able to wear my mittens while I work on my computer. So, I studied the mitten pattern and adapted it to create a pair of open mittens, that is, with no tips on the fingers. I know that there are knitting patterns out there for a pair of fingerless gloves, in fact, Dave has a pair where the top of the mitten flaps back to reveal the fingerless glove. I just wanted something simple with an opening for my fingers so I could type unrestricted. I used a double strand of wooly yarn for thickness and warmth and was able to make them in one evening. This is a great project for using all of those bits and pieces of yarn left over from other projects. It’s fun to use 2 strands of different yarns to create interesting color and texture.

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As we enter this last week of January, I feel a stirring in the inner chambers of my heart that whispers of thawing and melting. Perhaps it is just coming from the creative visualization that I’ve been doing for my frozen shoulder or just plain ol wishful thinking but I’d like to dream that spring is not too far away.

Saturday Morning Tea

Jan24

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As I gaze outside my window, I see that it is still mid-winter and we are encased in snow and ice here on Ramble Road. However, inside my cozy house, in my cup of morning tea, it’s a different story. I am sipping the first picking from the Arya estate in Darjeeling. Lot 1 of 2009. But it’s only January, you say. Is this a first flush tea?

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Actually, it is labeled as a “winter tea”. Oh dear, and here I thought I was cheating winter a little bit with springtime in my cup. Still, it is the first 2009 Darjeeling I’m enjoying and that is cause for celebration.

The preparation for this tea began last July when select bushes were carefully pruned. This pruning process encourages the bushes to “flush” right after the monsoon season which ends in September. This is actually considered the fifth season in India besides the regular four seasons that we know of – spring, summer, autumn and winter. It is a season of intense torrential rains that can cause landslides that block the Darjeeling district off from the rest of India.

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The leaf has a lot of green bits and some stem mixed in with the darker leaf. This tea has been processed as a black tea where the leaf is allowed to oxidize and turn dark.

I steeped the leaves in water just under boiling temperature for 3 minutes.

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A soft floral whisper drifts up from the amber liquor as I take my first sip. I taste a fresh fruitiness with a hint of green, almost like a ripe fruit that holds echoes of its unfolding flavor before it ripened.

I am enjoying my cuppa with my latest favorite treat, an oatmeal raisin flax cookie from Kashi. These wonderful cookies contain all sorts of goodness and one cookie is very filling.

My shoulder continues to heal, slowly but surely, and the pain fog is starting to recede, allowing my ability to concentrate to return bit by bit.

This past week I found a sketchbook that I had purchased last summer and, in the evenings after my acupuncture treatment, I started painting the pages with Twinkling H2Os, shimmery watercolor paints. Very simple. I place swirls and washes of color on each page randomly, allowing myself to just play with the paint. In my online browsing, I discovered Teesha Moore’s website and blog. Her unique and creative art journal pages have inspired me to create my own. You can read Teesha’s tips and recommendations on how to layer the pages here. I love to have guidelines when first attempting a new art technique. Guidelines allow the spirit of experimentation and play to come out and dance. Speaking of play, I want to purchase some crayons. Teesha recommends Caran D’Ache Neocolor II crayons. I found a bunch of different sets at Dick Blick’s and they look positively scrumptious.

Dipping into my creative life once again feels like a long, cool drink of water after a journey through the desert.

Creativity – like human life itself – begins in darkness.

~Julia Cameron