Tea, Dahling!

Just for fun I wanted to play a bit. After all, what else would you do with a fur coat hanging in the closet. So I donned  "the coat" and my sunglasses and off I went to tea. This year I am celebrating all year long turning 80 years old. And what a fun way to begin.

Doja Tea Lounge opened about a year ago and I hadn't visited yet.

It was delicious and I wished I had visited sooner.

In my cup was a very nice Darjeeling black tea.

This is my "live-in gardener" playing along with me.

Here we have cucumber herbed cream cheese slice, Char Siu Pork Garlic confit in a fillo cup, Green curry kabocha pinwheel, Japanese egg salad sandwich and Black garlic roast beef sandwich.

 

And then there were scones. I asked about the scone because it seemed different. It was a Scottish scone recipe, which was a bit crunchy but oh so good. The marmalade was delicious. There was also an earl grey madeleine and cranberry orange cookie.

And to top tea time off there were sweets. A Meyer lemon bar with elderflower meringue, Kumquat pink peppercorn eclair, and blood orange mango tartlet.

 

It was a special afternoon tea time with my "live-in gardener" and I celebrating the day.

If you ever are in the Portland area I can highly recommend Doja Tea Lounge. 

 

Now even if you are not in the area, pick up a good cup of tea and celebrate the day.

Happy Weekend, dear friends!

Word Magic

 

 

The word for this week is GIFT.

Gift, for me, comes with a lot of different emotions, baggage. Most often I don't feel worthy and have a lot of trouble acknowledging the gift and showing appreciation. Now this might not be you, but I can guess there might be some things that a gift stirs in you. I always feel bad that I haven't shown my thrill of the gift when I receive it. It is also hard for my family because they never know if their gift has been received with appreciation.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love giving gifts. The gifts in the above picture were purchased and wrapped by me for different family members. It is the receiving that is hard for me.

Yesterday a friend gave me a gift I would have never imagined receiving. She sells vintage clothes (EBK Vintage) and recently acquired a pile of fur coats. When she started showing them on Instagram I told her my step-grandmother once offered to give me her mink coat, which I declined. My friend said come over and pick out a coat, I want to give you a fur coat. What???!!! It is the most cozy, warm coat I have ever put on my body. Yes, it was hard for me to receive, but it is in my closet now. I told my friend that no one had ever given me such a beautiful gift. She told me "you deserve all the beautiful gifts". I am still astounded. Will I wear it? On a very cold day when I go to the market you might find it on me.        This gift touched me. It sang to my heart. I deserve beautiful gifts!

 

Looking at this picture I see other gifts. The tea cup from a dear friend and the bird picture from my cousin.

A tiny gift of a simple handmade Christmas ornament, made with love, also touches me. Even a kind word is a gift that touches me.

There is so much wrapped up in a kind word or a ribbon.

How does receiving a gift make you feel. What emotions does it create?

Things I Want to Be

Joey saying hello. He is often just being (napping more like it) in this basket in my office/studio. He is tucked away in this cozy basket near the heat vent. He is also always vigilant to make sure if I go to the kitchen there is food in his dish.

 

When I began 2022 I wrote this list and still it remains true:

 Be Happy

Be Healthy

Be Kind

Be Full of Laughter and JOY

Be Loving

Be a friend to others

Be Present

My gardenhouse is waiting for warmer days to sit over a cup of tea with a friend once more. Tea with friends on zoom is very special, but there is nothing like sitting face to face for an in depth conversation. Brrrrrrrr! Doesn't it look cold? Beginning to look for growth in the garden. Sometimes I dig under the leaves and say are you there yet? Is spring far behind?

The picture below is sharing tea with friends on zoom. I set up a little table and pour 4 cups of tea sending prayers out to each one in the world for peace and joy. I gaze out the window and watch the squirrels dance about. The candlelight dances for me.

Sharing with you a few snippets of my world right now.

May you be blessed with the little things that bring JOY into our lives. Happy weekend, dear friends!!!

 

Word Magic

 Yes, words are magical. This will be my Monday blog post theme for 2023, Word Magic.

Happy New Year!

As I have been thinking about the magic of words, I have realized how magical they are. They create pictures and stories in our mind. They dance before us. We see them everywhere from books, signs, even on ornaments for our Christmas tree or wall in our house, on tee shirts, and even tattooed on bodies. We hear them spoken in many different languages. Many we don't understand; but if it is the languages you understand, they create images in our minds.

I remember as my own mother aged and no longer could connect or remember a word or it's meaning, it was frustrating for her and those around her. I can only imagine how frustrating it was for her. Disconnecting with words would be so sad.

As a young girl I realized the magic of words. I loved reading the dictionary and trying to learn new words to add to my vocabulary. Though most of the words I may share we will know already, what will be fascinating is to notice what that word creates in our minds eye.

 For this week, the word is PEACE.

What do you first think of when seeing or hear the word PEACE?

On Friday I joined a tea and meditation gathering on zoom with others from around the world. By the end of the two hours I felt quite at PEACE. Then this weekend I watched a David Letterman interview with President Zelensky, the president of Ukraine and the song came to me of Let There Be Peace on Earth and Let it Begin with Me. I pray for PEACE. It sets heavy on my heart often. So for this day, this time, this new year, I will continue praying for PEACE in me and PEACE in the world. 

 

Happy New Year, dear Friends!

 

My teapot is empty, but held with anticipation.

I prepare by warming the water and choosing the tea.

The tea unfurls and opens for me.

In the quiet of the early morning hour it warms my hands,

Then the first sip of the day.

I breathe

I learn to just BE in the moment

My soul is replenished and I smile.

written by me this week

This is the early morning hour this very week.

 From The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater:

"Everything I have ever wanted is here, right now."

"The cold is making me hungry. I head in, pausing to warm myself by the wood-burning stove in the hall. My request for coffee is sweetly but firmly refused, and I drink green tea from deep cups instead..."

After going for an early morning walk in the cold he finds a coffee shop not yet opened, but enters and sits to wait. "The owner arrives, surprised but apparently unbothered by my having "broken in". She makes me coffee and brings hazelnut cookies shaped in unruly lumps like fat pebbles. A blue woolen blanket for my knees. And then a wafer thin ginger biscuit, coated in the thinnest white icing. Like frost on a roof tile. She lights a small wrought iron stove. I write."

And so it is, life goes on in the most perfect, cozy way and I also write to you, dear friends.

May you be blessed always and in the little things that delight you. May you be served a good cup of coffee or tea and wrapped in a blanket of coziness. Stay warm, savor each day, and above all else dance.

PS: I read The Christmas Chronicles every December, maybe not every word, but select essays that delight my winter, Christmas days.

Happy New Year, dear friends!
 

Words for the Year

 When I was a young girl I loved picking a word from the dictionary and trying to include it in my vocabulary. So you see, I always have been fascinated with words. I think for the next year I will do something like that on Monday's. It isn't quite ironed out, but we will see where it leads us. Maybe we will all learn some new words for 2023. What fun we can have. Let's play a little.

 As many of you know each year I focus on a word. I have done this for 25 years when my first word was Patience. There have been many words since that time; some have made a huge impact on me and some have almost been forgotten. The word Joy probably brought me the most happiness and I have been tempted to bring it back at times. Grace was the word that surprised me. This year was Be and I wasn't sure where that would take me. I has been a reminder to me just to be satisfied with staying in place and not always saying "what's next". That is a hard one for me, as I am a planner and always love knowing what's coming next. I make lists. 

Yesterday I went to the market and realized my list just wasn't right, it was written before Christmas and many things I no longer needed. So I ditched the list and just let it be what it was, an adventure in shopping and finding delights on the market shelf. This isn't me, but I realized I needed to just let it BE and play a bit. What fun to come home with some things I wouldn't have put on my list. Not something I would recommend regularly, but for this day it brought me joy, a little chocolate, some lovely fruit, and several frozen prepared meals to make some days easier. Still learning to just BE in the moment.

 As we approach the end of the year I begin thinking about what I would like to focus on for the next year. The list was made and then another word came to me. It often surprises me when it makes an appearance. 

So for the coming year my word will be VOICE. It is a word I have thought of often in the past, but never was brave enough to grasp it. If you were sitting with me face to face you would know that I am a person of few words. I listen and take in what others say, but often don't say much. I say more in writing than with my voice.

Goal for my Voice:

Tell stories

Share Kindness and Love

Allow myself to be heard

Create opportunities to speak

Stand for Justice and Peace

VOICE is an active word, where BE was a quiet word (a stillness).

Do you pick a word for the year? or does it pick you for a season?

I have learned many things from my words over the years and love the challenge they give me. 

Sending you love, joy and happiness today and everyday.

Has someone given you a kind word this week?

 

A Gift for You - A Flower and A Poem

 In finishing the year I found I wanted to focus on HOPE. The following poem immediately came to me and wanted to share it as a final poem for 2022. 

Both pictures are from my own garden this week. 

There was ice, snow, and then much rain and wet; but above all else is HOPE.

Several mornings I had to bring the hummingbird feeder inside to thaw. When it was returned to it's perch I would find the little bird nearby waiting.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

By Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

 

 

And the garden will return to flower again.

Hold HOPE in your heart.

May you be blessed this Christmas season!