Friday Poetry and Give Away

It's All in the Process

When brewing tea,

One desires exceptional quality.

How one gets to that end

Depends upon the means.

And so it is with life.

What would you brew yourself to be?

A woman of truth?

A man of peace?

Whatever outcome you desire,

You may simply brew yourself to be.

~Earlene Grey

If you have made a bitter pot of tea,

throw it out.

Life is too important to drink bad tea.

~Earlene Grey

In the fall I said I would have a give away

of some tea books.  

For some reason time passed me by

and here it is the end of winter. 

So here we are finally a give away.

One lump sum, everything in the picture to one lucky person.

Please leave me a comment to "enter me"

and make sure if your sign in doesn't link to

you then leave an email and name so I can find you. 

Good luck!  I will announce the winner next Friday.

Happy weekend, dear friends!

Green Bean Bookstore Reading

In my neighborhood there is a children's book store

that my grandson loves visiting, Green Bean Books.

Recently they had a new book introduced by the author, Kelly DiPucchio,
 and artist, Christian Robinson.

What a fun adventure to hear the artist read their new book,

Antionette.  She read it with a French accents because of course

Antionette was French.

Then the illustrator sketched some pictures for the kids.

He asked what each kids favorite animal was.

My grandson said a coyote.

I never quite realized how important the illustrator was to a book.

They often come up with the look of the book for the words the author

writes, then decide the break down of the pages too.

I think I enjoyed the visit as much as my little D.

Gaston was their first collaboration and has been quite successful.

Peeking through the front window

at the new Antoinette.

I loved it and know your little ones would love it too.

If you are ever in my neighborhood, the Green Bean Books

is the perfect place to find a gift of a book for someone special in your life.

I know my grandson looks forward to each venture we take to the Green Bean Books.

International Women's Day

 Today is International Women's Day

and on reflecting on just that I remembered

the women that bring tea to me.

It is as simple as that.

Farmer Chen's wife standing by her husband,

keeping him awake at night to process the tea,

being the other half of carrying the hedge trimmer

to cut the tea, and then serving tea in the tea house.

 To the women plucking tea in the fields that delighted me with there soft voices.

 To grandma serving tea in the tea house in Alishan, Taiwan.

 It touched my heart to see these women sharing in a days work in the field

and still have a smile on their faces.

To all the women around the world

you bring a smile to my face by your

love and diligence,

by your empathy and strength,

by your ability to care for the world around you

and treasure it with gentleness and boldness.

You make our world a better place.

We celebrate you!

A Very Special Quilt Show

 Recently I attended a very special quilt show,

actually an art show.

I hadn't seen these friends for many years, though we

keep touch on Facebook.

When I started working in the world of apparel in 1985

I met these two very creative ladies.

It was pure delight to reconnect.

The purpose of the meeting was a reception for

my friend, Anne (the one in the middle), quilt art show reception.

 I just love this picture of my two friends.

It just makes me smile to see their delight.

Let me tell you just a little about these beautiful art pieces.

Ann admitted she loves color and stripes.

You can definitely tell by seeing her quilts.

She hand dyes 100% Cambodian cotton fabric

and from there makes stripes of color.

Sometimes she doesn't know where the inspiration

will head until she starts placing her stripes on her flannel wall.

Then the inspiration takes flight in the most beautiful ways.
Anne is a true artist with a passion for color.

 It is really difficult to share the size of these pieces

or the true beauty; but maybe you can imagine a little.

 This picture and the one right below are the same quilt,

but I just loved the structure of the building too.

The posts worked so beautifully with these pieces of art.

 Isn't this amazing?

When I looked closer the quilting was beautiful too.

Anne has someone with a long arm quilt machine do the quilting,

and her creativity also helps Anne's quilts shine.

  The one below was my favorite.

Oh I wish you could see it up close.

Each quilt is definitely a work of art.

 

It was an evening of delight and eye candy for my heart.
Thanks, Anne, for sharing your passion with each of us that know you.

Walk with Me - The Grotto

 When I started this "Walk with Me" series 

I really didn't think about it being a tour of Portland;

but here I am walking in one of our tourist spots.

 I thought this was the perfect place to walk this week

as I contemplate the coming of Easter and the Lenten season.

 Walking just a couple days ago in a light rain,

I walked through The Grotto and along the pathway

to pray at the stations of the cross.

 There are many of these plaques along the path,

places to stop, meditate, and pray.

 In the spring there will be rhododendrons blooming,

but for now just touches of color can be found.

There is a gift shop and church that are lovely to visit.

At Christmas the walk is full of lights and music.

As the weather improves there will be services outdoors.

There is always a large crowd for Mother's Day and Easter.

It is beautiful, but also so very peaceful.

If you ever visit Portland and need a little time of quiet meditation,

this is the perfect place to go.  It is very close to the airport too, so

maybe a stop on the way to or arriving in Portland.

Enjoy walking wherever you go this week.

Annual "To Do" List

At the first of the year I don't make resolutions.

As you know I adopt a word for the year,

but I also make a Wishlist or a To Do list for the year.

It is things I hope to do during the year, such as Laugh, go to the Gym,

Dance in my Tutu, Tea with Friends. 

Well you get the picture, fairly easy things, but worth paying attention to.

Well this year's list included mastering the making of pavlova.

Not sure that is silly, but it is one of my favorite desserts, yet

not something I make.

So you see in the above picture, this is my first attempt.

Yes, there will be others in different forms,

but for this one I wanted individual shells.

For a first try, I was happy.

I made a whip cream filling, then added fresh strawberries and

sliced kumquats and then drizzled with

melted chocolate.

I served that with Earl Grey tea.

Delicious!

It felt a bit like springtime as I nibbled and sipped.

Do you make a yearly wish list?

I hope you put something fun on it, like making pavlova.

Happy weekend, dear friends!

Notice What You Notice!

Look and See

This morning, at waterside, a sparrow flew

to a water rock and landed, by error, on the back

of an eider duck; lightly it fluttered off, amused.

The duck, too, was not provoked, but, you might say,

was laughing.

The afternoon a gull sailing over

our house was casually scratching

its stomach of white feathers with one

pink foot as it flew.

Oh Lord, how shining and festive is your gift to us,

if we only look, and see.

~Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early

Notice what you notice today!