A cup of tea, with Corinne.

I am quite passionate about tea and because i hugely enjoy both drinking it and talking about it i have "sat down" together with some lovely tea drinking ladies and asked them a few questions about their relationship with tea. This time it is the lovely Corinne and i who are having our tea-time together.

V: Do you remember when you first started drinking tea?

C: Tea has always been a constant in my life, as my mother has always been a tea drinker, but I don't think I fell in love with tea until a few years ago. When my kids were born I had a huge need for caffeine! I would try and try to drink coffee, but it does not agree with me at all... so I crawled over to the tea side eventually!

V: What are your favourite teas? You can mention as many as you like...*smiling*..

C: In the morning I love a good English Breakfast tea... and in the afternoon I have a cup of PG tips to give me strength to make it through the day. At night a nice soothing Egyptian Licorice is nice... but I also have a vanilla chamomile that puts me right to sleep! Any type of chai is a favorite, and this time of year I snatch up any Pumpkin Spice tea that I can find!

V: Favourite thing(s) to eat together with your tea?

C: Anything sweet... but I think a nice apple cake goes particularly well with tea, any time of the day!

V: Most times, do you do something while having your tea, like fex. knitting, reading or listening to music?

C: I love doing anything that requires sitting while drinking tea :) Sharing a cup with good conversation {on the phone or in person!} is a great ritual of friendship. Having a cup while the kids and I do schoolwork helps me to slow down and pause instead of rushing through lessons. And of course, sitting with a book or knitting is always made better with a warm cup of goodness!

V: Is your country, USA, a country where it is very common to drink tea? Is there any tea traditions there?

C: It seems to me that there are way more coffee drinkers in the USA than tea drinkers... but that is just my observation. Coffee is a culture in itself here!

V: Where do you mostly buy your tea?

C: It's a mix between the grocery store and health food store. I can find the teas I drink the most (breakfast, and PG tips) at the grocery store, but if I want anything a little fancier, like Yogi teas or an organic, I have to go to the health food store. I'm just about ready to find some variety and shop online, anyone have any good suggestions?

V: Which tea cup of the day do you enjoy the most and why?

C: The afternoon tea, by far. It's when I can manage to steal some quiet time and either chat with a friend or my mom on the phone or sit and knit for a few minutes. I think ultimately what I love the most about tea is that it slows me down for a few minutes, a few times a day, and helps me to gain some perspective on the day.

V: Do you have a favourite tea mug/cup? Maybe we can get to see a photo of it....*smiling*....

C: My favorite mug is from an etsy seller, Creativity Happens. It's a turquoise ceramic owl, and my closest friend has the same one. Though we're miles away, I love having the same mug and knowing that we're sharing a bit of the same experience now and then! Plus, it always reminds me of our friendship and I can't help but smile!

Link:

Corinne's blog. 

Happiness for me these days are found in things like....
sunshine, eating left over cake from my husband's birthday this past weekend, choosing between all the new teas that i kindly have been gifted lately (my tea selection is quite heavenly at the moment...*smiling*...) not getting too hopeless despite of having many challenging bodydays in a row, making someone happy, eating huge amounts of delicious homegrown tomatoes from my bestie's greenhouse, to love and be loved, wearing a pretty tweed butterfly brooch on my chest given to me by a beautiful friend, several favourite artists releasing new albums and also finding new music that i like, (slowly) finishing knitted projects and dreaming of new ones too, the crispness of the autumn air, wearing my new mustard colored stockings from the lovely noa noa....

"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content."

-Helen Keller 

 

Heavenly tea swap package from beautiful Joaquina

Joaquina

I got the lovliest tea swap package from Joaquina last week and i can promise you that i have enjoyed it every day since...*smiling*...........just look what happened to the chocolate in the few seconds that were between the two pictures below here....*laughing*....

Beautiful Spanish tea cup,  lots of delicious loose white tea, a box of tea bags with the heavenly taste of hibiscus, fruits and rose petals, a box of YUMMI chocolate muesli bars and a photocard and letter with heartwarming words.......oohhhhhh, it's no wonder that it felt like i had my birthday!! 
Thank you so much dear Joaquina!!

Blueberry scented gifts

Thank you so soooo much my dearest Anu for all these heavenly gifts that you sent me in this blueberry-scented and beautiful-patterned box....*smiling*...... My husband picked it up at the post office and his car were fastly filled with the sweetest scent of blueberries.....*more smiling*....i am sure he wished that it was HIS name that was written on the box.
And above all Anu, i want to thank you for your precious friendship!!

"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood."

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

To listen to the silence...

Just a photo of a moment from my day today.
Sometimes i feel so very silent...so "without" words........just like i feel these days...


“I've begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.”
― Chaim Potok, The Chosen

Scandinavian poetry, part ten.

photo by the noisy plume

The wind
by Stein Mehren


Wind before daybreak, you are not wind, you do not
  blow, you are a wind before the wind, listening
across the earth…in breaths of light, gusting,
  gleaming in ice. As a crown of starry leaves
you blow out the heavens above this land drunk with night,
  brightening. You break from seals of the dew,
spheres within spheres, the earth beaming: Light
  over sheening spans of water, mirroring
there where birdsongs run like chinks of light, you draw
  the skies behind you, a seven-colored robe 
of forest wakening within a rushing wind of five seas.
   Wind like a wind before the wind, gusted out of the light
 into the circulation of waters, the open trembling of the high leaves.
  As the earth itself, heaven by heaven, 
rises from the sea. Like a birth. An embrace.
  Like death. Like wind. Everything that trembles in wind.

A cup of tea, with Magdalena.

I am quite passionate about tea and because i hugely enjoy both drinking it and talking about it i have "sat down" together with some lovely tea drinking ladies and asked them a few questions about their relationship with tea. This time it is the lovely Magdalena and i who are having our tea-time together:

Magdalena's own drawings

V: Do you remember when you first started with drinking tea?
M: I drink tea since I can remember. It has always been my basic beverage. But I started to enjoy it genuinly in my late school times I think.

Now I am keen on tea not only in terms of drinking it. For me it is a theme inspiring in many aspects: beautiful tableware, interesting design of packaging or even art. I use tea inspiration in some of my drawings, I like pretty tea cups, and I collect tea tags.

V: What are your favourite teas?
M: My favourites are ginger green tea and quince green tea. I constantly discover different tea flavours and types, but green tea is my all time favorite for years. Quite recently a taste of white tea turned out really likable for me too. 

V: Favourite things to eat together with your tea?
M: The perfect match for tea is an apple pie :) But mostly I eat some biscuits with it (of course I dip a bisquit in tea just like a child) or drink just a tea.

V: Is your country, Poland, a country where it is very common to drink tea? Is there any tea traditions there?

M: Tea has always been very popular here as ordinary daily drink. Which means black tea poured with hot water, often served with lemon and sugar or with raspberry juice (especially in a wintertime).

I think a greater awareness for what is tea and openness to taste it and try different types and flavours has come quite not a long time ago. We still usually drink tea to breakfast and supper. But during the day we enjoy tea as well for pleasure, for taste or for relax.

V: Is it a good tea selection to choose from in the stores and do you sometimes buy tea on-line?

M: In grocery shops there are quite good choice of basic teas. For a larger selection I need to go to special stores. I’m not a fan of on-line shopping, so I prefer buying by the way, when I’m in different stores or cities. However it could be a good idea to come around web shops as I would like to try some well-known tea brands (e.g. Kusmi, Yogi, Stash or Pukka) which are not available here in the local shops. As you know I’m a fan of tea swaps too. Sharing new tastes with other people as a lovely surprising gifts is a great enjoyment.

V: Can you tell us about your tea bag and tea tag collection?

M: I started collecting tea tags and tea bags somewhat by chance. When I’ve tasted some delicious tea, I saved the wrap ot tag as a reminder. Then the collection was growing, because some packaging was just so pretty ;) And you know, all these tea tags together looks like fun and the box with tea wraps smells so good! :) so I couldn’t resist keeping them. My collection isn’t very big but enjoyable. I have bags and tags from teas I drink and also sometimes people from different countries send me some as a very nice small gifts.

V: Which tea cup of the day do you enjoy the most?
M: I’m fond of the first cup I can enjoy in the morning. At summer I drink it on the balcony, savoring first sun rays and bracing morning air. I’s kind of keeping the moment of silence and calmness before starting a new day. I also like to have a mug of tea with my daily blogs reading or afternoon tea with a good book. Well, it turns out that I have more than one favourite tea cup of the day ;)

V: Do you have a favourite tea mug/cup? Maybe we can get to see a photo of it?
M: I have a couple of mugs and cups which I like. I usually use my everyday mug with oriental pattern, big, light and handy. But from time to time I’m in the mood for a little change and particular cup, which I choose with a pleasure for celebrating small moments. In my cupboard there’s, among others, delicate pale mug with Winnie the Pooh watercolor which I adore maybe quite childishly, my grandmother’s white vintage mug with flowers, and lavender cup from World Of Jet company (I love their flower series pottery).

Actually I’m a little bit crazy about tea cups/mugs, which you can see on my secondary blog/project: cupcollect.blogspot.com.

Link:
Magdalena's main blog.