Ah, Summer

Hmm, I see it has been quite a while since I wrote.  The last month has been so busy I have barely had time to drink tea, let alone write about it.  Planting, volunteering, having company, recovering from company, baby showers, busy, busy, busy.

However, I continue to make my ice tea in the fridge and I must tell you about one I really like.  It comes from Lupicia Teas.  it is their apricot flavored black tea.  It is just refreshing and the apricot blends very well with the black tea.  The fruitiness somehow says "Summer".  I guess that is because there are so many more fruits available now.  I would recommend this to you if you like flavored tea at all.  It is especially nice that you can let it brew overnight and it is just fine.  I don't make my extra strong, so you may need to take that into account.

Speaking of which, I am growing pineapple sage this summer.  Up here, it is an annual with pretty red flowers.  Supposedly, the leaves smell like pineapple and are often used for tea punches.  Personally, I think they smell like bubblegum.  But I am going to include it in today's ice tea and see how it is.  Hopefully, I will report tomorrow.

Another thing I have been doing with my ice tea is cutting up strawberries, which are local at the moment and muddling them a bit to add to the tea.  Or I just plop a few in the glass.  The latter is prettier.

More of the Amalfi road.

The Russians Have Arrived

One of the things I find most annoying about aging is getting tired a whole lot sooner than I want to.  Last week was really busy getting ready for the plant sale and both last week and this week I have been planting, planting, planting, but yesterday, alas, yesterday, I was tired!  Drained!  Pooped!  Not even a large glass of ice tea helped, so you know it was serious.  So I didn't do anything.  I even got an entree out of the freezer (emergency rations) and added some leftover salads and called it supper.  Himself is always glad to eat whatever he gets, he's really easy to live with.

Today, however, I am back to what passes for normal and it's back to planting.  My aim is to have the flower beds so full the weeds won't even think about sprouting.  One of them is there already, so do I stop?  No, I extended the bed.  It's like collecting teapots or finding another new tea to try.  A sad affliction that makes me happy.

Some friends gave me some Czar Nikolas II green tea.   I promptly made some in the fridge.since I really like green ice tea.  I only use a little more than  for hot tea because  I don't like it strong and I don't add ice.  I was surprised that it smelled minty and then maybe like bergamot and aha! there it was on the package - natural and artificial flavors.  It is quite nice, if you like the somewhat heaviness of Russian tea.  The smell and the taste are about the same, but and this is a big but, you can actually taste the green tea as well.  This is a definite keeper.  You can get some from www.russianteacompany.com

Nature is providing us with lots to see.  The wild phlox is blooming, as are the white dog roses.  The buttercups are all over the backyard.  We've had 2 fox kits stroll through the back yard.  They have less red than their father.  The orioles are back and one of my day lilies is getting ready to bloom.  It's a new one, so I am excited to see it.  I have the garden all planted, but I still have to put up tomato cages.  On the down side, this has been a terrible season for pollen. 

Wed. I was looking up our communal back yards and thought there was either rain or mist coming this way - nope, pine pollen, spruce pollen, evergreen of some sort pollen.  Our black car is mostly golden.  Thankfully it's been raining yesterday and today and that has washed a lot of it out of the air.

The beautiful Amalfi coast.  I wouldn't mind living in one of these houses.

Tea From The Lake

It's lovely cool day today, especially welcome after so much heat - good weather for having a hot cup of tea.  Today's is Sun Moon Lake Black Tea from China via Life in Teacup, one of my favorite companies.  It is Taiwan/Formosa's famous black tea.  The leaves are indeed black, long and twisted.  There is a slight wine barrel aroma in the packet, not a great deal, as this is only a sample.

The brewed tea is much lighter reddish amber than I expected and smells very woodsy, with a definite hint of tobacco.  This does not come through very much in the taste of the brew, which tends slightly towards fruity, with just hints of the wood, wine in it.  It's somewhat hard to pin down, so, for me, it is intriguing.  It has that quality of "more, please"  that some really good teas have.  So that is what I am going to do.

Did  you know there is a Tea Encyclopedia on line?  Yup, www.teaencyclopedia.org  I suspect it is from some non-English speaking country, as the language is not quite our type of English and the "blog roll" is in what I think are Chinese characters..  The list, so far, is not huge, but it's interesting.  Check it out.

The birds are beginning to bring their young to the feeders.  Such a racket!  hey are somewhat endearing, as they struggle to fly and land on a small bit of metal.  They do overwhelm their parents!

Bring Back The White Gloves!

Years ago, no lady went to tea without white gloves and a hat.  There were articles written about how to deal with taking tea and wearing gloves.  If you had finger foods, you took at least one off, but it was generally acceptable to leave them on if all you had was tea.  But there were many gradations of glove etiquette.  I' m glad I wasn't around then, I probably would've made many a grievous error and become a social pariah.

I bring this up because I had company for tea today and when I looked at my oh-so-grubby hands and nails, I wished for gloves.  I am a gardener and whenever the weather has cooperated in the last few weeks, I have been grubbing around in the dirt.  This week has been especially dirty, as I was getting ready for the Master Gardener Plant Sale,  and then helping get all the plants tidied and labeled and helping out at the sale.  We made mega bucks this year, which is very nice, as it funds all our programs for kids, new gardeners and poor folk.  But I sure could have used gloves this afternoon.

We had ice tea, as it is quite warm.  I made 2 kinds, One was Williamson's English Breakfast, which was your typical ice tea.  It was brisk, strong and very nice.  Fortunately my guest drank that one.  The other was Red Blossom Tea Company's Jing Xuan, a Formosa Ali Shan Oolong.  Now I love Ali Shan Oolong, but this was not nice.  I must have used too much tea, for one thing and for 2 things, the leaves never did unfurl in the tea sock in the fridge.  The floral component was just about overwhelming, instead of being lovely and delicate.  Next time I think I will do the tea by the hot water method and see how it works.

Yesterday we had a big dog fox strolling through the yard.  He was the size of a gray fox, and was mostly gray, but his head and chest were red.  He and his family live under my neighbor's shed, but this is the first time I had seen him.

The courtyard of the Hapsburg summer palace.  If one were invited here to tea, one would definitely not only wear gloves, but get a manicure, a pedicure, a new hat, new shoes.....You get the idea.

Ice Tea Time

Aah, Bliss!  After some truly murderously hot days, the wind came up, the rain came down and it has been raining off and on for 3 days.  We really needed both the cool and the rain.  I don't think our cats would agree with either statement, so they go out and come in soaked, to drag their cold, wet tails across my ankles.

Back when it was hot, I had some of the Kangaita tea left over and so I iced it.  It was a bit strong for me, so I diluted it a little.  I don't think it does very well as ice tea - it loses all it's lovely nuances and becomes just "tea, tea", which is the family designation for ordinary tea. It is much too nice a tea to do that with it.  I actually prefer green ice tea.  It seems to hold on to nuance, delicacy and flavor better than many black teas.

There are at least three ways to make ice tea.  My favorite is to put a somewhat strong amount of tea in a tea sock, in a jug, fill the jug with cold water, cover with plastic wrap and bung it into the fridge.  For green tea, I let it go 5-6 hours, for black tea, it can go overnight. There is the sun tea method, where you put your tea in a glass container and set it in the sun all day.  I have done this many times, with no ill effects, but I know we are warned not to, lest bacteria invade it and make us sick.  I have not personally heard of this happening.  I don't usually do it because my cats would knock it over.

Last, but not least is the old brew a pot of strong tea method.  This is good when you want some ice tea right away.  I just make a regular pot, because I like my ice tea weak.  There are also a multitude of ice tea makers on the market and I confess to being attracted to them.  However, they are relatively expensive and refrigerator space and sunshine are not, so I will content myself with what I have.

I take part in a tea swap and I got the cutest  tea gadget, ideal for gardeners - a potted plant tea infuser.  The plant part comes out of the pot and has an infuser attached.  When you are done brewing your tea, you put it back in the pot.  It is made from food grade silicone rubber.  I am going to try it right now and see how it affects the taste.  I am going to use my SD Bell tea, as I know what that tastes like. 

Well, I think there is a faint, very faint taste of something like rubber and I think the tea is a bit weak.  But I am unused to making tea by the cup and if I do, I usually use a tea sock, so the tea has lots of room to open up.  But it is cute.

Yay, that blasted bully-boy blue jay got his comeuppance this morning!  He was trying his usual land on another bird trick, which he uses to intimidate smaller birds at the feeders, but the hairy woodpecker, though smaller, has a fierce, long, sharp beak,and he just pecked him several times and that ended that.  Ha ha, bully bird!

Hoorah For Kenyan Tea

Memorial Day is coming and the ads are full of specials for grilling and picnicking.  But I am more reminded of the deeper meaning of the day.  It was set aside to remember all those soldiers who gave their lives  for our country, in one of our many, many wars.  I am firmly anti-war, but ...  The fact is many men and women have gone to war and paid horrific prices for the rest of us.  So let us remember them and say thank you.

Memorial Day is also a day to remember family and friends who have gone before us.  I remember going with each of my grandmothers to decorate family graves.  I'm not sure I understand the point of it, but I loved the stories that were told about the 2 sisters who married 2 brothers, about the family friend my great grandmother was named for, the baby boy who died at birth and the baby left behind in a New Jersey cemetery.  There were the graves with odd headstones, and the ones where a whole family was wiped out in a diphtheria epidemic, and that of the many greats-grandfather who lived to be 91 and had 127 grandchildren when he died!  There were sad tales and funny tales, but they wove my family into my heart and made them real.

I hope your families are very real and precious and that you have someone to tell you their stories and that you, in turn, tell the next generation those same stories.  Plant some rosemary for remembrance.  I have some thyme from the cemetery where my parents and grandparents are buried - the whole place is covered with it and it smells wonderful when one walks on it.

I lift my cup today to soldiers and families and friends - may we all grow in love.  I am having some Kenyan tea from Camellia Sinensis Maison de The in Quebec, Canada, www.camellia-sinensis.com .  It is part of a tea swap.  It is called Kangaita and is both organic and fair trade.  In the packet it smells wonderful, with a deep winey aroma.  The medium sized leaves are very dark, but there is a lot of gold dust on the inner surfaces of the packet.  I am brewing it for 3.5 minutes with boiling water.  As it is brewing it has that deep wonderful fresh wash smell, coupled with old wine barrels and dark tree bark.  The liqueur is a very pretty rosy amber.

This smells so good, I can barely wait for it to cool enough to sip.  Oh, my this is wonderful tea.  It is very rich tasting, but has a light body.  There is that woodsy, earthy quality, but it is combined with something very close to caramel.  There is a pleasant, spicy note to the aftertaste.  This really is one of the best teas I have had in a while.  I am especially  pleased because  about 10 years ago, there was some wonderful Kenya tea and then there was a terrible slump and it was just awful, but this is one more proof  that Kenya's orthodox tea can stand with the best.

Wallflowers in Switzerland.

If You Go Out In The Yard Today...

I think our resident "teddy" bears need to have their picnics somewhere other than my backyard.  I get tired of having to repair bird feeders, throwing out suet holders and jumping up and down on the feeder poles to straighten them out.  Besides, they stink and the cats won't even go in the yard for days.  A pox on them!

We've had summer weather for a good bit of April and May, but last night old man winter came back.  The wind died down and the thermometer plummeted to about 25.  I had all my unplanted things inside. I think everything survived.  Someday I am going to learn that May can turn on us gardeners and not be a bit pretty.

I am having another Williamson Tea to comfort myself in the cold.  This one is a High Grown Kenya and 1 pound of the purchase price of the tin goes to relief work in Africa.  I like seeing my money do that kind of work.  Again, these are tea bags.

This is not the best Kenya tea I have had, that honor goes to Royal Tea of Kenya, but it is far from the worst.  There isn't a whole lot to say about it.  It's dark and strong, with woodsy overtone, maybe a touch of cured tobacco.  It plays nicely with milk and on the whole, I like it.  Himself did, as well.

Yet another fancy schmancy altar.  What can I say, I like churches.  The somewhat darker structure on the left wall, would have been the royal box, so they could be separated from the common folk.