Tea Time

I never take the time to have tea. I have a cabinet full of lovely tea cups and tea pots and I usually just look at them and think of how lovely it would be to take tea. There are numerous containers of tea in the cupboard.  It gets purchased and then it sits there. 

But today, I decided was the day I would take tea in the afternoon and delight in the experience. I loved it.  What a wonderful idea to incorporate that soothing respite into each day.

Usually at about 2:00 each afternoon, I turn into a lazy bones.  You might say that I turn into a total couch potato, however a Lazy Boy potato would be ultimately more accurate. Instead of succumbing to the temptation to take a two hour nap, totally waste a good afternoon and not be able to get to sleep tonight -- I put the tea kettle on. The I unearthed my favorite yellow tea pot accompanied by a daisy themed cup and saucer.  The little details of the teapot are incredibly beautiful, yet simple. The nob on the lid, the end of the spout and at the bottom of the handle -- all little heart shapes. It makes me happy to see the tiny pot and even more so, to make use of it.

I filled the mesh strainer with  a couple of scoops of my favorite -- hot cinnamon herbal tea. It smells and tastes heavenly. And I feel quite genteel and fancy with this touch of civility in my afternoon.

My plan is to do this again tomorrow. I believe I need some shortbread or maybe scones to broaden the experience (and my tummy) even further.

It's long past nap time. I didn't need it. My energy was buoyed by a pause that fed me in so many ways. On another day, perhaps I will invite a friend over for tea -- with crumpets?

Happy Day!

Just a good day at the Best of Times Farm. Don't you love it when life is grand and you like getting up in the morning?

Well Woven

Whenever you put color together, it creates something beautiful. I'm learning to weave. It's so freeing that that weaving can be as simple or as complicated as you like. For the time being, mine shall be quite simple -- and colorful -- and fun. It's one of those seemingly basic skills that have been around for a very long time is many cultures around the world. It's a simple act of bringing something together, weaving weft through warp and creating something new and sturdy, useful and beautiful.

Color! Color and More Color!

Clouds of prepared wool

Oh my but I love color.  As a child, I loved all things colorful, but there was always and encouragement to be more tasteful in my brightness, tone things down a bit.  When I was a young adult I believe that black and white was mature, conservative and quite professional.  So I kept it calm and professional for a long time.

Then one day I just exploded and had to have color in my life.  Lots of it.  Even on things that are understood to not be colorful -- I wanted there to be color.  Tired of always having modest color cars --red, pink and yellow became the new norm.  Houses are meant to be brown, black, white and taupe.  I had a house that was turtle yellow with bright pink shutters.  It was delightful.  Having color again was like I'd been deprived of air, and finally had an endless supply of invigorating oxygen, gulping it in to keep lively.

I hear the terminology that some people are afraid of color.  What the heck does that mean, and how did it ever become a thing!?  What on earth ever possessed a group of people to decide that it is a good and desirable state to be lacking color? 

One of the pivotal moments of joy in my life came the first time I saw "The Wizard of Oz" in color. It was the early 70's before I saw the movie on my grandmother's color television. Before that, I'd always loved the movie (except for the scary flying monkeys) and had no idea that there was that change from a black and white setting while Dorothy was in Kansas, to vibrant color when she landed in Oz.  Oh my, but color made such a difference in the joy of watching that movie.  Many of the scenes made so much more sense and the contrast between Dorothy's two world became even more pronounced.

We raise Pygora goats for their fiber and because the make such wonderful companions.  I'm on a wonderful quest to harvest, spin, dye, weave, crochet and otherwise use all that luscious yarn- to- be in whatever way I can.  I'm quickly becoming a fiberaholic and someday I'm hopeful my skills might match that level of fiber acquisition. Maybe I'm not overly concerned about that.

The above photo shows the final clouds of fiber from an entire years worth of Sweet Pea, Daisy and Indiana Jones growing out there coats. I'm so proud.  There were so many dye colors to chose from -- it was a heady moment of possibility.  You'll notice that one batch, upper left, is left au natural.  That's because all colors are beautiful -- not just the bold.

I had pink hair once, too.