I told you about my little short stat tool on my blog in a previous post. Well, today, I log in and see someone has come to my site form another blog. I’m always curious about the trails to my site, so I look up her blog:Kathleen Lisson. A lady who enjoys wine, and likes my blog. I know nothing of wine! Check her out, I’ve added her to my blogroll.
Happy sipping!
Well, in this case, it’s not a cute way of saying ‘let’s kiss’. Back in the way olden days, when tea had to be smuggled into the country because of the American Revolutionary war (We all know the Boston Tea Party, don’t we?) and also, because good tea was hard to get, it was too expensive for most people to afford. Many times people thought they were buying real tea, when in actuality, they were buying smooch.
Smooch is made from the leaves of ash trees. The leaves are dried in ovens, then put on the floor and broken into small pieces by walking on them. You add a bit of real tea and mix in some sheep’s dung (yes, sheep’s dung) and boil it all together then dry it again. Ew. Ick. Ack!
So, now you know what smooch is, my friends. Aren’t you glad we can afford the good stuff? I am.
I have a wonderful tool on my website that allows me to see where you all are and how you got to my website. I can’t actually see through your monitors and into your living rooms (ew! as if!) but I do get to see from what countries people are visiting me. Some on the list have been quite surprising.
Today, I looked at my short stat and someone had gotten to my page by typing in, ’sign up sheet’. What? I have no idea how that happened but I think it is neat that someone looking up something so mundane could have stumbled across my site and hopefully it brightened up their day a bit.
Before I became gainfully unemployed, I lived in the dregs of society also known as corporate America. I won’t go into the gory details but I am thankful everyday for my liberation which, by the way, allows me to do this web page and work on my book and sell my Mary Kay and beet new people. I love my life!
Come back later today for some step by step photos of how to brew a pot of tea and tomorrow we’ll cook some scones. Okay, you caught me, I’m cooking them today and taking photos while I do, eating some and then posting the photos tomorrow.
Mmmm, lemon cream cheese scones.
What does she see in her cup? The promise of love? Riches? Perhaps the darkness of a not yet experienced tragedy?
Just a little side note. If I could, without being asked fifty times a day if I were going to a costume party, I would much rather prefer a silk gown to denim pants any day. Hmm, what price ‘progress’?
I just read on another persons post how she had to send out notices to 72 town home renters that their rent is going up per the owners of the complex. Yes, I know it is their property and technically it is their legal right to do this, but what about moral and economical rights?
What about the rights of renters not to have to worry that the owner of the building will get greedy and start to raise their rent thinking he/she has the renter over a barrel?
Case in point. I used to work in a tearoom. It was a cute Victorian house run by a cute older lady but she rented the space. She was in this space because she previously had rented a space from someone in the older, historic part of town who got greedy and increased her rent to the point where she could no longer afford to be there after having been there for several years. She decided that when her lease was up she would turn her shop into a tearoom/clothing shop at another location. Her new location was just around the corner from her old place but since the street traffic was much lighter (read nonexistent) her business could not be sustained and she was forced to close her doors but not until after she had lost everything and I do mean everything, including her life savings. Basically she had to start over at a time when she should have been enjoying her retirement. As if that wasn’t bad enough, her previous shop location sat empty for an entire year, year and a half while all of this other stuff was going on and it was eventually rented, wait for it…for LESS than her ORIGINAL lease was before her rent hike.
So, the new renter got her old space for less than what she was paying and she lost everything. The part of town this happened in is having issues between owners who only rent the buildings and don’t run a business within them, and those who run businesses and care about that local community. Not all the buildings are rented, there are some owner occupied buildings but the numbers dwindle all the time.
Why isn’t the city stepping in and doing something before rent is so expensive that no one will be able to afford a shop or restaurant and the whole historic section falls into ruin? Obviously if, as this particular incident showcases, a building owner is somehow able to afford for a building to sit empty, and they do not have a vested interest in the area (it’s just another property) the owners won’t care if many of the shops are empty as is the situation at the present time.
I grew up on the West side of town and I do not want to see it turn into graffiti covered slums, although the owners of the tattoo shop on 21st street ‘decorate’ the outside of their building with graffiti (I refuse to call it art) which I think sends a certain message and makes the community look bad, but that is for another post.
I see homes and businesses for sale all over town and the prices are ridiculously high. Businesses are going under and being sold off and the prices are so high you could never buy them and have a legitimate business and be able to pay the mortgage or taxes. It appears that, by not stepping in and figuring out how to create a situation in which everyone wins and commerce thrives and people can afford to have a decent roof over their heads, the city is condoning having empty buildings, (fire traps, targets for graffiti, places where homeless and/or partiers can go unchallenged) condoning price gouging, (unnecessarily high rents so that people who want to own a business aren’t able too and hey, the city is missing out on extra tax money from revenue), condoning a vagrant mentality by not making a certain percentage of building owners in that area run a business on that site so they feel a connection to that community besides the one in their wallet.
If people feel connected to an area, they are more likely to be active in preserving it, but if they only go to that area once and a while to give the new shop owner a set of keys and they get sent a check in the mail once a month, they are not invested emotionally and would most likely move on to another spot if the economy suddenly fell off in that area. Why not? It’s not as if they are raising children there or have to walk down the street at night after closing up shop or be inundated with transients and other questionable persons who come into the store(shoplifters, etc.).
So, let’s become emotionally committed and not so greedy. Let’s build a community and not JUST a business. Instead of being landlords, let’s be stewards of the land, and people, and build places worth our time and effort and stop looking at everything for what we can get out of it and what sort of bottom line it could create.
Blech! That’s how I feel about exercising. However, it IS so very important. I think we as Christians must be especially diligent about our bodies and yet, so many of us are just plain, fat. There’s no way to sugar coat it, we’re fat. I’m fat, you’re fat (if you are, I can’t really see you, you know) we need to take care of ourselves. How are we supposed to run the race set before us if we get winded lacing up our shoes? I too have regrettably let myself go. It’s time to do something about it, are you game? Do you want people to look at you and see unresolved issues that you use food to cope with, or do you want people to look at you and see the glory of God? I’m going for the glory and let me tell you, it’s been ok so far. I’ve been exercising for a couple of days now and drinking my water and getting better (although not 100%, and even if I’m never at 100% on eating clean, I’m ok with that, I refuse to beat myself up any more over food. That’s bondage, I want deliverance). My aim is for improvement, not perfection.
So, I use a FREE website called Sparkpeople. <—–click there. You can log your nutrition, your exercise, get motivation when needed, meet great people with similar interests as you, all while getting healthy for yourself, your loved ones and most importantly, for God and for furthering His kingdom here on earth.
If you decide to join Sparkpeople, please make sure to let them know you were referred by me. My user name is Honeybea.
Want to see Big Ben? Sip tea at The Ritz? This is your chance! Our favorite tea tour guide, Denise, is offering a tea tour of London package.
Space is limited and there are deadlines involved so HURRY UP!
What are you willing to give up? What are you willing to do? How do you set yourself a part in this world as a Christian? In these perilous times where anything goes, where t.v. shows and movies are constantly pushing the envelop of decency, glamorizing what we as Christians know to be wrong, and there are even some churches that no longer say there is a right and a wrong, one runs the risk of being label a kook or a radical for speaking out against things which have generally been embraced by society. So here goes my foray into kookville.
The Golden Compass. Short story, don’t see it, it glamorizes and tries to mainstream demons.
Long story, it’s bad, bad, bad. Even though, just by viewing the trailers, one could think this is a story about good and evil, sort of like Narnia (it has that sort of feel to it) there is a difference. ALL the characters, good and bad have demons also known as animal familiars. This is pure witchcraft, my friends. I know, as an adult, I don’t need or want that sort of thing swimming around inside my head. Can you imagine what it’s going to do to your kids? Since the main character of this movie is a child, it looks like all this has been created to attack children, to get them and their parents, comfortable with the idea of demons, to make it look ‘cool’ and acceptable and ‘ok’. If there is one gift you can give yourself and those you love, it’s to not see this movie. Let’s send a big message to Hollywood and hit them where it hurts, their pocket book. The message? We’re not going to continue to allow them to attack children and twist them or corrupt them any more.
I love the art work of, Linda Nelson Stocks. Usually I’m not a big fan of folk art, but I discovered her quite by accident one day while shopping. There on the shelf was a desk calendar. I thumbed through it and was delighted by what I saw. Bright, happy pictures of people and places that make you wish you where there.
Yes, it was in theaters a while ago and has been out on dvd forever , but I finally got my grubby little hands on a library copy and watched it over the weekend. I loved it. The only thing I didn’t like about it was how the two main, single, female character’s hair looked awful! I know they had combs in the Victorian times, so why did Millie and Beatrix have to look like something the cat dragged in?
I did enjoy the tea scenes and had fun trying to figure out who made some of the tea sets. One was a Wedgwood, and the pattern is still active!
So, if you like stories about people following their dreams despite other’s expectations for their lives and you want to see a great love story, rent Miss. Potter and enjoy it while you sip.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery we’re told. I have spent my entire life trying to ‘fly under the radar’, to be invisible. That’s REALLY hard to do when you’re a six foot tall woman. Yeah, no kidding. It is becoming more and more apparent to me that I’m not as invisible as I’d thought/hoped. How do I know? God is sending people to tell me to my face just how visible I really am. This can actually be kind of good for someone who has, in the past, exhibited a lack of ability when it comes to telly people the truth in love. Oh, I can be truthful alright, ‘I think that if Paul told some of the disciples that they shouldn’t eat meat lest a new Christian stumble and fall then maybe she ought not to be wearing THAT to church showing off what her momma gave her!’ That is an example of how NOT to tell the truth. No love, y’all. So what to do instead if the younger women are watching and learning? Have that hair and make up done in a contemporary, fashionable way and dress nice but age appropriate.
Show love to my husband even when things maybe tense between us because the tense part will pass so two things: 1. The faster I forgive and come at him with love and kindness the faster the ‘tense’ goes away, and 2. Anything I said during the ‘tense’ part that wasn’t nice I now have to apologize for and who wants to apologize more than they have too? Do you REALLY want to stand there and say a laundry list of apologies for everything that came out of your mouth in anger? I don’t.
So during those ‘tense’ moments, try to get out with as minimal damage to you and your husband as possible so that when you’re sitting in church, you can genuinely look at him with love in your eyes.
Greet strangers. Wear a smile. That’s how we act like light and salt, people.
Enjoy life sip by sip not gulp by gulp. - The Minister of Leaves Thank God for Tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea. - Rev. Sydney Smith I always fear that creation will expire before tea-time. - Rev. Sydney Smith Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. - Henry Fielding Remember the tea kettle - it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings! - Unknown There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. - Henry James While theres tea theres hope. - Sir Arthur Pinero Tea- the cups that cheer but not inebriate. - William Cowper There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea. - Ralph Waldo Emerson Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. - Tien Yiheng Ecstasy is a glass full of tea and a piece of sugar in the mouth. - Alexander Puskin I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. -Lu tung Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage. - Catherine Douzel Come oh come ye tea-thirsty restless ones - the kettle boils, bubbles and sings, musically. - Rabindranath Tagore One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams. -Milton As long as it is hot, wet and goes down the right way, its fine with me. -Sarah Fergerson, The Dutchess of York, On Tea Tea is wealth itself, because there is nothing that cannot be lost, no problem that will not disappear, no burden that will not float away, between the first sip and the last. -The Minister of Leaves In nothing more is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival - almost one may call it - of afternoon tea...The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose. -George Gissing [I am a] hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals only with the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the evening. -Samuel Johnson What part of confidante has that poor teapot played ever since the kindly plant was introduced among us. Why myriads of women have cried over it, to be sure! What sickbeds it has smoked by! What fevered lips have received refreshment from it! Nature meant very kindly by women when she made the tea plant; and with a little thought, what a series of pictures and groups the fancy may conjure up and assemble round the the teapot and cup. -William Makepeace Thakery ...for tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilites, or are become so from wine-drinking, and are not susceptible of influence from so refined a stimulant, will always be the favored beverage of the intellectual... -Thomas De Quincy Tea had come as a deliverer to a land that called for deliverance; a land of beef and ale, of heavy eating and abundant drunkenness; of gray skies and harsh winds; of strong nerved , stout-purposed, slow-thinking men an women. Above all, a land of sheltered homes and warm firesides - firesides that were waiting - waiting, for the bubbling kettle and the fragrant breath of tea. -Agnes Reppiler ...For tea, though ridiculed by those who are naturally coarse in their nervous sensibilities, or are to become so from wine-drinking, and are not susceptible of influence from so refined a stimulant, will always be the favored beverage of the intellectual... - Thomas De Quincey Surely every one is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four oclock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whist the wind and rain are raging audibly without. - Thomas De Quincey Tea had come as a deliver to a land that called for deliverance; a land of beef and ale, of heavy eating and abundant drunkenness; of gray skies and harsh winds; of strong-nerved, stout-purposed, slow-thinking men and women. Above all, a land of sheltered homes and warm firesides - firesides that were waiting - waiting, for the bubbling kettle and the fragrant breath of tea. - Agnes Reppiler Afternoon Tea should be provided, fresh supplies, with thin bread-and-butter, fancy pastries, cakes, etc., being brought in as other guests arrive. - Mrs. Beeton The Book of Household Management Tea Poetry If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated; it will cool you; if you are depresses, it will cheer you; if you are exhausted, it will calm you. - William Gladstone Steam rises from a cup of tea and we are wrapped in history, inhaling ancient times and lands, comfort of ages in our hands. -Faith Greenbowl The cozy fire is bright and gay, The merry kettle boils away and hums a cheerful song. I sing the saucer and the cup; Pray, Mary, fill the teapot up, And do not make it strong - Barry Pain The first bowl sleekly moistened throat and lips, The second banished all my loneliness The third expelled the dullness from my mind, Sharpening inspiration gained from all the books I've read. The fourth brought forth light perspiration, Dispersing a lifetimes troubles through my pores. The fifth bowl cleansed evry atom of my being. The sixth has made me kin to the Immortals. This seventh... I can take no more. -Lu Tung,Chinese Poet Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa around, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in - William Cowper We had a kettle, we let it leak; Our not replacing it made it worse, We havent had any tea for a week... The bottom is out of the Universe! - Rudyard Kipling A toast to the grace of the pot, ready at all time To give up its emptiness for the tea. -The Minister of Leaves At last the secret is out, as it always must come in the end, The delicious story is ripe to tell an intimate friend; Over tea-cups and in the square the tongue has its desire; Still waters run deep, my dear, theres never smoke without fire - W.H Auden With each sip I taste the fire that gives its heat. The water that gives its wetness. The leaf that gives its spell. The pot that gives its emptiness. With each lingering sip I cannot help but see all that makes tea as well make me. -The Minister of Leaves On herbs. There is nothing to resist. With nothing to resist them. Harmony and balance to not hide. Entering harmony and balance, I wash my teacup. -The Minister of Leaves The soil. The elevation. The climate. The sunshine. The rain. The tea. Body. Mind. Equanimity. Harmony. Water. Tea. - The Minister of Leaves I invite you magnanimously to please be my guest for tea at a room with high standards of taste where the hostess remembers my face and greets me by name at the door and recalls what Ive ordered before and inquires kindly after my day, and appreciates all that I say. Shell have orange pekoe for the pot and darjeeling, as likely as not, or if you are not in the pink our hostess knows which herbs to drink, like ginger to help with the grippe mixed with cinnamon and the rose hip; or fresh lemon balm if you wish, perhaps blended with sweet licorice. So whether you feel well or ill, this refreshment will quite fit the bill and, of course, you will quite enjoy me. Yours truly. RSVP -Aubrey Henslow
I love going around to the thrift stores and antique stores where I live. What I’d REALLY love to do is go to the flea markets in Paris. I love the old, vintage and antique. I stroll around the aisles looking, sometimes touching, ever so carefully and lightly, items that catch my eye and spark my imagination. Who held this? Who wore that? How many tears were cried into this hankie? What secrets were whispered over this teacup? Were ardent love letters written while sitting at this desk? Who painted this, and why?
Oh, I get all tingly just thinking about it, my friends. I think that if I owned a shop filled with antiques and linens, hand made soaps from France and exotic food stuff, I would have a hard time letting any of it go. I know because I’ve tried buying things at garage sales to sell on line and some are still sitting in my house and the ones that I did sell, I wish I could buy back. Sigh, oh well.
The worst part of all this? My husband thinks antiques are just really old used furniture and can’t understand why I would want to buy someone else’s cast offs. I laugh. I think he has a better understanding since we both have been delving deeper into steampunk. Steampunk (this site is one of my favorites) creates technology that never existed. Remember how, before the invention of nasty plastic, everything was marble, wood, glass and brass? Well, the people who create steampunk use those elements to recreate today’s technology in yesterday’s glamour.
I tried to have each steampunk word link you to a different website of someone’s workshop so that you may see what it is about which I write.
Happy surfing while you sip!
There are many lies about Christopher Columbus. He was NOT a genocidal maniac. He was, in fact, a missionary who desperately wanted to bring the gospel to distant lands and peoples of remote areas.
I highly recommend buying a copy of the book: The Light and the Glory. This book gives factual accounts of our American history undistorted and honest.
Happy reading while you’re sipping!
Last night was our first home group. I made portobello mushroom and pepper encrusted pork tender loin, summer squash casserole (see-Melissa’s Cozy Kitchen for the recipe-and step-by-step photos!), green beans and pickled beets. I actually only made one thing, the casserole. The tenderloin just needed to be removed from it’s package and cooked and the beans only needed heated up and the beets were served cold. I also made cinnamon iced tea to drink and decorated the table in fall colors. Light a few candles and voila! Instant home group/dinner party.
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Everything is done and we’re ready to eat!
I am a painter, a One Stroke (c) painter.
Here are two pumpkins I painted and sent to a pen pal and also, some harvest themed tags I made that were also sent to her.
Do you drink licorice tea? Click here to read a story of a lady in the Netherlands who was suffering from hypertension as a result of drinking licorice tea. Licorice tea is growing in popularity in many places including the Netherlands. If you suffer from hypertension and you drink licorice tea, please talk to your health care provider.
Picture of a wild white licorice bush.
The three plus one club is now a Yahoo! group. Check it out and join if you’re interested.
In my pages category, you will find a title:Melissa’s Cozy Tearoom. Please take a moment to read it, it is the October tea room menu. September’s is listed below October’s. If I had a tea room, this would be the afternoon tea menu for October.
Have fun and email me if you need recipes or have questions.
Happy sipping!