Everything Tastes Better Outdoors

Do you like to walk in the garden and forage for food?

What would you find there?

In my garden I walk each day watching for ripe figs.

So far they are ripening one at a time,

just right for a nibble as I walk.

But sometimes I just love sitting at a tea table with a friend.

Tea time in the garden is so extra special.

It is fun to incorporate food from the garden into tea time delights.

Radishes with goat cheese, yummmm!

 

Or fresh sliced tomatoes with a leaf of basil on a baguette slice.

Then of course, who can resist just eating a tomato in the garden?

 

What is it that makes eating outdoors just taste better?

Fresh air, peaceful surroundings, and yummy garden produce!

How I love time in the garden, sipping tea and nibbling.

As our rains have returned this week and it is beginning to

feel like Autumn/Fall is in the air,

I am feeling the draw to pull on a sweater

and slip outdoors just one more time for a sip of tea,

a nibble on a fig, or a munch on a tomato.

Walk with Me - Washington Park International Rose Test Garden

 Last week my "live-in gardener" said he needed to get out of the house.

We wanted to see the roses one more time before they were gone.

So off the Washington Park's International Rose Test Gardens we went.

 The sky was blue with scattered white clouds.

A perfect day to walk in the gardens.

  This rose was my favorite of the day.

 My "live-in gardener" did quite well I must say,

for only having had knee replacement the week before.

Rain has now come to the gardens today,

but we will always have our pictures and memories of

a walk in the rose garden.

Are you walking, dear friends?

Summer's Last Fling with Roses

The roses in my garden still shine.
Often I look out the window and find someone smelling
them or taking a picture on their phone.

I love that the roses delight the neighbors throughout
the Spring and into the Autumn.

Touched by the sun.

As I have shared before, the rose garden near my house.
Others also delight in the garden of roses.

"I question not if thrushes sing,

If roses load the air;

Beyond my heart I need not reach

When all is summer there."

~John Vance Cheney

 Happy Weekend, dear friends!!
Go out and smell the roses.

Tea - The Experience

Looking back through past pictures

I find so many pictures of tea;

but it isn't just the tea that I find fascinating

but the experience of tea.

More and more I realize that tea time is part of an experience.

It is an experience I love for it's quiet times and 

gentle times shared with friends and family.

Tea can be savored with our morning toast or 

a time of quiet at the end of the day.

One teashop in town reads your Tarot cards as you sip tea.

Others use it as meditation either alone or with a small group.

There are traditions and ceremonies wrapped in with sipping tea. 

As a blogger who often writes about tea, 

it really is the sharing of the experience of tea.

From a child's tea party,

 To WuWo Tea Ceremony,

 My early morning tea time alone,

 The elegance of afternoon tea while traveling,

 Breakfast tea time shared with my "live-in gardener",

 Sitting in the garden,

 Or tasting tea in a tea shop.

 I savor each and every experience with a good cup of tea.

How do you experience tea?

"Though I cannot flee

From the world of corruption,

I can prepare tea

With water from a mountain stream

And put my heart to rest."

~Ueda Akinara 

Linking to Bernideen at:  http://blog.bernideens.com/

Ceramics and Tea, a Total Delight

Saturday I ventured out to a ceramics sale in a tealovers garden.

I didn't realize that it would be more than that.

I just wanted to see beautiful handmade ceramics by Richard Brandt.

There were special things to see with each step through the garden.

I loved it all.

Even the teahouse at the back of the garden.

Do you see it back there?

But there was more!!

There was a tea tasting going on.

Andy from eco-cha in Taiwan was making tea.

The small leaf black tea from the Dong Ding region of Taiwan

was quite delicious.  Wishing I had bought some now.

I will be visiting his website soon to order.

As he explained instead of making a summer oolong

the farmer picks and creates this special black tea with leaves

from the same plants that they earlier pick for oolong teas.

He was using Richard Brandt's special tea table.

The tea and the teaware were all amazing!!

A tea experience I hadn't expected, but one I totally delighted in.

You can find terrific teas here at eco-cha.com

Walk with Me - in My Garden

 Walking this past week took me only to my own garden.

Searching high and low for beauty and delight right there.

Moments grasped as I took time away from playing nurse

and made sure the garden was not neglected.

So thankful for a sprinkling of rain on Saturday,

the garden was thankful too.

As you can see some weeds reside there,

but beauty still appears amongst the thorns.

It is those little things that somedays we must

search and find to delight the way and make our hearts sing.

"And this is certain; if so be

You could just now my garden see,

The aspic of my flowers so bright

Would make you shudder with delight."

~Edward Lear (1812-1888)

Tea Time - Dreaming of the Changing Season

The sky is thick, and the dusky twilight hides the hill-tops;

The dewy leaves and cloudy buds cannot be easily plucked.

We know not for whom, their thirst to quench,

We're caused to toil and labor, and daily two by two go.

-A stanza from a traditional tea plucker's song,

as quoted by Williams, Middle Kingdom

The season of Autumn will soon be here,

the season of abundance.

I always find myself gearing up for more hefty teas

in my cup, such as a Yunnan Gold or Puerh.

What better to pair with warm apple pie or squash soup.

These teas welcome me with the morning sunrise

and I sing a song of JOY. 

What do you like to sip from your cup on a cool Autumn day?

What JOY comes from your kitchen in the way of baking or cooking?

Today I am thinking of making something with tomatoes, maybe a tart.

Tomatoes and plums are drying in the dehydrator as I prepare for winter. 

My tea basket is sitting in readiness with some wonderful Puerh's

and my thoughts are beginning to plan new purchases for the cold days ahead. 

Happy weekend, dear friends!!