One Brief Shining Moment

That is indeed what we had early this morning.  We had our first snow - all 1 inch of it!  As the sun was coming up, the trees around the bog were caught in the rising mist, all splendid, shining silver. Then the clouds, consumed with jealousy, hid it all and forced their gray selves upon us.  But we live for those momemts.

And... we comfort ourselves with tea, which can be another shining moment.  Today seems like an Oolong day and I am having Jung Xuan from Alishan, Taiwan via the Red Blossom Tea Company.  This is one of those little-balls-with-a-tail Oolongs that are such fun to watch unfurl.  In the packet, it smells like fresh hay or cut lawn, with a lovely hint of jasmine/orchid/gardenia coming out if you inhale deeply.

I brewed it for 3 minutes with water about 200 degrees.  The resulting liquid is a soft yellow-green, with that great floral aroma.  It has a light, fresh taste, with a lovely floral accompaniment.  On the whole it is very like almost every Ali Shan, I've tried.  I would rate it about in the middle of that pack.  Very pleasant, but not outstanding.

The day has had other lovley bits in it.  I saw three hawks - a harrier, a red-shouldered and a red tail in various places on my travels.  The best, only seen now that the leaves are gone was several!! oriole nests.  I am thrilled, as I wondered if we would ever see any more.  They used to nest in elms, usually over a stream, but the elms are gone.  Now, many of them nest over roads, which perhaps, seem like streams to them.  I had 3 of these gorgeous birds at the feeders this summer.

Speaking of which, Cornell U. has a program called Project Feeder Watch where you can keep track of birds in your yard and report them to a data collection site.  You can also find out which birds are where and the most common ones.  Just google Project Feeder Watch and read all about it.  A good thing to do with your tea.