Gardening Days

Another altar cover from Amalfi

Oh frabjous joy! Not just one oriole, but a pair. I have to say, the male may be very handsome, but he is not very agreeable. He wants to be the only one at the feeder, including his mate, whom he also chases away. She is much duller in color, but still attractive.

I love the little downy woodpeckers. They are so darn cute when they are bobbing their heads around to make sure it is safe to eat. If you don't have them where you are, they are about 6 inches long, about the size of a suet holder, and black and white with a bit of red on their crowns. The hairy woodpecker is about 8.5 inches long and looks almost the same.

Our backyard is covered with violets and rockcress and down the road an old apple tree is bursting into bloom. When I was a kid, walking home from school, to the farm, one of my favorite sights was coming over the hill and seeing the apple orchard in bloom. And the scent - so sweet, I always wanted to keep it forever. I still do.

I spent a lot of today planting daylillies and some black hollyhocks. Daylillies are so accomadating. with little care they just bloom their hearts out and spread nicely so you eventually have great tracts of them. You can use the buds in some Chinese dishes and some of them are even nicely scented.

Speaking of scent, today's tea doesn't have much. It is Irish Cream from one of our local shops, Front and Center. It is a pretty tea, with blue and yellow flowers decorating it. I did my usual for new black teas and finally there was some aroma - sort of creamy, and definitely Irish Breakfast. Yes, it tastes creamy, but that fake cream, not the real stuff. Even putting the real thing in didn't help much. And I certainly couldn't taste any good Irish whiskey, either. Not a very satisfying cup.

Gardening Days

More of Amalfi



Oh frabjous joy! Not just one oriole, but a pair. I have to say, the male may be very handsome, but he is not very agreeable. He wants to be the only one at the feeder, including his mate, whom he also chases away. She is much duller in color, but still attractive.

I love the little downy woodpeckers. They are so darn cute when they are bobbing their heads around to make sure it is safe to eat. If you don't have them where you are, they are about 6 inches long, about the size of a suet holder, and black and white with a bit of red on their crowns. The hairy woodpecker is about 8.5 inches long and looks almost the same.

Our backyard is covered with violets and rockcress and down the road an old apple tree is bursting into bloom. When I was a kid, walking home from school, to the farm, one of my favorite sights was coming over the hill and seeing the apple orchard in bloom. And the scent - so sweet, I always wanted to keep it forever. I still do.

I spent a lot of today planting daylillies and some black hollyhocks. Daylillies are so accomadating. with little care they just bloom their hearts out and spread nicely so you eventually have great tracts of them. You can use the buds in some Chinese dishes and some of them are even nicely scented.

Speaking of scent, today's tea doesn't have much. It is Irish Cream from one of our local shops, Front and Center. It is a pretty tea, with blue and yellow flowers decorating it. I did my usual for new black teas and finally there was some aroma - sort of creamy, and definitely Irish Breakfast. Yes, it tastes creamy, but that fake cream, not the real stuff. Even putting the real thing in didn't help much. And I certainly couldn't taste any good Irish whiskey, either. Not a very satisfying cup.

Tea for Me

Tuesday January 4, 2011

More of that courtyard in Italy. I am very jealous of them - they
have a 5 foot rosemary. But mine is still alive in its second winter -a near miracle. It's very hard to find the balance of cool, light and water.


I was going to brag about being good about after Christmas candy and chocolate sales. Until they had stuff I really liked at about 80% off. Especially the boxes of shortbread for $2 - usually $6 and the Lindt reindeer for 32 cents (even if my husband thinks it looks like a rabbit). I was only pretty good. It's still better than awful, right? I didn't find any tea sales that good, but a number of companies are having sales, so you should do some surfing and see what's available. I can't - it's either more tea or a new husband. It was a tough decision, but he won-lol.

I was in the doctor's office today and they had this month's issue of Your Health, one of those free papers. There was an article in there recommending drinking tea. It was very short, but listed the benefits of all the main types - white, green, oolong and black. I guess tea is coming into its own. Now if we could get people to concentrate more on tea and not flavorings.

Having said that, I am almost embarrassed to review today's tea - Creme Brulee from Metropolitan tea company, via our local tea seller Front N Center. I got it while I was discussing doing an interview with Simon, the owner and chef of Simon Says, the small restaurant attached to the shop. It's kind of a pretty tea, with attractive brown leaves and some red and blue petals to perk it up. It smells mostly of tea, with a sort of burnt smell. Creme Brulee means burnt cream, although it is really the sugar on top that is "burnt". I brewed it for 3.5 minutes and the aroma continued. The taste was just vaguely sweet on top of a pleasant Ceylon. There was a little kick of astringency at the end.

Blood Orange Brewing*

Notice the painting on the side of the house, up near the eaves. This
is the ancestral home of the Knutti family - friends of our family for over 200 years.

Our birds are very brave. In spite of Ernie sitting under the feeder, they keep eating. They must have figured out he can't climb the pole. He does get scolded, however, mostly by the bluejay.

It's a typical fall day in the Northeast - gray and rainy. I wish we'd had some of this in the summer. Oh well, a good excuse to have tea! I am trying "Blood Orange" from another local teashop here in Owego - Front and Center. It really is a kitchen equipment/restaurant/cooking school, but it has a large selection of teas. In the coming weeks I am going to be interviewing the owner, Simon. Now that it is colder, they make 3 different soups every day. All their tea is loose and brewed fresh for each person, using a T-sac.

Anyway, the tea is from Metropolitan Teas, a wholesaler, so there was nothing on line about it. In the packet it didn't smell like much, but there was a whiff of orange and there were chunks of orange peel. It is a black tea, so I did my usual 3.33 minutes of boiling water steep. As it brewed there was a lovely aroma of orange wafting from the pot. The tea is a light medium amber. It is a very nicely behaved, flavored tea. You can taste the tea, which has a slight earthiness to it, with a gentle over note of the orange. Personally, I have never been really able to tell the taste of blood orange from that of an ordinary one. If you can, please tell me about the difference.


How are you coming with your Thanksgiving prep? I did a number of things today as tomorrow is busy with other things. I got the pie crusts made and in the fridge, the stuffing, 2 pre-dinner dips and one of the veggie side dishes all ready. So Wednesday I'll just do the pies and the mashed potatoes and Thursday will only be Turkey and a couple last minute things. I feel sooooo smart - I've never been this organized. Now, if only the vacuum cleaner had not died before I cleaned the house.......LOL My friends will either love me anyway or they can clean the house.

* The title of one of Laura Child's tea shop mysteries. So nice of her to put together 2 of my obsessions - tea and mystery