musings of a melancholic: tea

Showing posts with label tea. Show all posts

I love it when Jennifer and Olive come to visit. Since they moved back to California in April, much to the family's sadness, Jennifer and Olive have been able to get back up about once a month to ease our pain.

Not only do I love that Jennifer does the dishes when she's home (and a myriad of other chores we all hate but now have to do in her absence), but I love that after dinner, no matter the evening, almost all in attendance enjoy a cup of tea. I like to wander to Jean's china cabinet and chose a tea-cup from her lovely and eclectic collection. I daresay it's one of those small, profound pleasures that I live for.

Add one (or five) of Jean's pumpkin cookies, and you have one blissed out madame.

Last night, Miss Olive joined in the festivites.

What joy was mine,

The Story of A Night:

A husband and wife, having just finished eating a dinner of pasta and cucumber salad, sat on the couch to converse. Her blood felt heavy in her veins, a sadness slowing her bones. As the sun set, their eyes began to droop. Feeling unable to stomach bedding themselves at 8:30pm, they decided to put on their shoes, coats, scarves; she painted her lips. They braced themselves against the spring wind, mighty and surprising. Arriving at their favorite local tea shop, she ordered her usual Chai and he some rare form of Jasmine. They decided to accept the cozy invitation of the lounge chairs and began to peruse the random assortment of books. She took up a photographic homage to Marlene Dietrich; he leafed through a travel guide to tea shops in the Northwest. Classical music played overhead, the mystical scent of incense infused the air. Afterward, they stopped for gelato and walked the blocks home; their energy and moods much elevated and invigorated by the fresh air and whimsical spontaneousness.
In short, they felt better.

In the spirit of all things Anglo, I invite you to a little tea-time chat. I am just sitting down to my afternoon cup of tea and have a few simple things to report. I've been favoriting all kinds of spiced teas lately, Green Ginger or heavily-spiced Chai have been vying for the top. Today, it's Chai with milk and sugar (they don't have honey at my workplace!). How do you take your tea? One lump or two? Now, if I were a proper Brit, I'd have some sort of biscuit to offer you...but a cyber-biscuit sounds all kinds of wrong.

Ahhheeemm.

Heat up your water.

Go ahead.

I'll wait.

Now that you're all settled in...

Oh what a weekend! There was a grand mix of amazing cuisine, easy friendships, a flurry of spring cleaning, assembling food for the baby shower I hosted, drinking (ugh. too much), stimulating conversations, early-to-bed, book-finishing, naps, movie-watching, make-out sessions in the doorway, grocery shopping, meal-planning, baby-kissing.

Frankly, I do indeed prefer life in general to be less full. Weekends are such a tricky time of trying to connect with your family, getting enough lazy-time, working around the house, and catching up on sleep. It's a perfect conundrum and I admit that it stumps me most of the time.

How about you? What was your weekend like?

Baby Chioggia and Golden Beet Gratin, Niçoise Olives, Roquefort Mousse

One of the highlights in the cuisine department was going to Portage on Queen Anne Hill with our good friends, Jeremy and Jenae. This gem above was one of our salads, the Baby Chioggia and Golden Beet Gratin, Niçoise Olives, Roquefort Mousse. I could have eaten quite a few of these.

Afterward, staring at the moon while eating pistachios and froyo wasn't bad either.

The lovely mess of friends, sigh. I truly do find it beautiful.
(more pictures of the baby shower to come)

Playing and resting at Mom's house on Sunday. A truly delightful day despite a rather dampening bout of depression that I woke to.

Sigh.

It is a life-long struggle for me, but not so much the depression itself. It is more the ability to be kind to myself in light of its rather shadowy bits. I preach loud about self-care, but dears - I fight every damn day to keep the good words and thoughts at the ready and to push back on the deluge of lies threatening my mind. I bruise like hell most of the time, and sometimes I flat-out lose. But the battle only lasts so long, and that was yesterday.

I'm happy to report that today is looking squeaky clean with its bright citrus perspective.

The truth is, depression comes to the forefront of my soul for a reason - at least for me. I am missing my sister and niece something fierce and immersed in all kinds of confusing thoughts, changes, and disappointments. I'm not eating well, not exercising, not writing, not snapping enough photos. All of those reasons aside, let's not forget the chemical imbalance always teetering in my brain chemistry. So what if I just had to sit on my bed in a total conoundrum about what to wear (not for any special occasion, mind you) for almost an hour. So what if the only self-care I can really muster is several hot baths in one day or lying still and brooding over the dying pear tree in the back-yard?

Exactly how I felt at the end of all of it.
Satisfied and so sleeeeepy.

The lovely husband has to work late all week, so this means I get the house to myself. To this introvert, an quiet space sounds better than a spa or a lifetime supply of gin and tonics.
(Whoa, come now, let's not over-exaggerate dears.)

Well!
That tea was reviving
(AND I didn't even burn my tongue!)

All in all, a proper respite.
Until next time.