Branching Out

Hooray for snow.  Beautiful sparkly white stuff.  Hooray for tea to drink when it is cold.  My next wish is for it to stay cold so we can keep the snow.  Well, two wishes, because I would like the sun to hang around also.

Today I am having the last of the flavored green teas I got from Blue Raven Teas.  It is called Caladosai and is made from sencha (Japanese) green tea, dried cherries, lime, lemongrass and Asian spices.  I brewed it with water about 180, for 3 minutes.  The resulting liquor was a pretty pale pink and smelled mostly of star anise and the green-ness of the sencha.  That is just what it tasted like, as well, with the barest hint of fruit.  I thought the dried fruits were strawberries but as I chewed them it was clear they were not.  But they tasted good.  I don't think this blend worked particularly well, as the star anise pretty well carried the day.  It's a strong spice, brought out by heat and moisture.  I like it, but only in moderate amounts.  I think if I had made this in a pot, instead of just one cup, I would have liked it more, as the ingredients would've been able to blend better.

Driving around, seeing the tree branches, I have been noticing how the different trees put out their limbs.  I have been marveling at the many genetic codes that make one tree short, one a giant, one send out branches in a cork-screw pattern, another vase-shaped, another very round, that one an arrow, etc.  The trees that have grown apart from others have the room to be fully themselves and some are breathtaking in the beauty of the arrangement of their limbs.  I still miss my favorite pine that went down in the tornado last spring, it had lovely branches.

I need to find beauty in the winter, it is not as apparent as it is in summer.  Well, perhaps, it is a different sort of beauty, quieter, waiting to be seen instead of showing off.  One very bright sight was spotting the brilliant red berries of some deciduous holly.  Did you know that there is such a thing?  I just found out myself.  Even against brown and gray it really reaches out and grabs your eye.

What has been beautiful for you this winter?

One of the many, many medieval fountains preserved in Durlach, Germany.  Note the frog climbing up the side of the bowl.