Other things
Apr. 12th, 2010 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pasitheaTea mostly.
I have been using moving as an excuse to change a few behavior patterns. One of them, is trying to switch from mostly corn-syrup based soft-drinks as my default flavor beverage to tea with occasional sugar based soft-drinks. So far I've been pretty successful. I'm down from 2-3 cans of coke a day to 2-3 per week of $soda.
One of the first things we bought for the new house is a nice electric kettle. We had a nice range top kettle for some time but was getting a bit old. The electric is also faster and increases my odds of having tea. I'd been using the one at work for a while and decided it was the best method.
Naturally, when we moved, the only dish that got broken was my teapot. I'd been drinking mostly pre-bagged tea for the past few years so it wasn't initially a huge concern but it had been on my 'todo' list to find an adequate replacement. The old pot was only a 2 cup pot anyhow and had always felt a bit small.
So. I banded the old one back together with a bit of wire (it was cracked through but not shattered) and I am now using it as a pot to grow compact mini basil. Already little green leaves are peaking out the spout.
On Saturday there was a Freecycle Free-for-all event. (Everyone brings stuff to a pre-destined time and place and the majority of it gets new homes) My range-top kettle and many other things went with and found new homes where they will hopefully be loved for some time to come. In one of the boxes with the lid to my broken teapot, so I stuck it in my pocket to remind me that I wanted to look for a new pot while we were out. We slouched through a couple of book shops, looking for the best reference we could find on building stone stairways and patios. Prior to an expensive vet visit, we had planned to start rebuilding the stairs to our house soon.
The pot lid worked as intended and reminded me that there was a tea shop I had wanted to check out which I thought might be a good place to find a kettle. So Stacey and I began walking there, then we were stopped by a handsome older woman and her friend who asked if we knew where to find another tea house. She was visiting the area from Sonoma. As it happened, I did know roughly where it was and mentioned the irony that I was on my way to buy a teapot. At which point she promptly invited us with her to *Namaste. She's a fascinating woman. Older lesbian with a long term partner. She's traveled the world, living in Japan, Africa, and everywhere else, working as a professional psychologist. She talked a lot about tea ceremony and the way she'd been taught to pour tea in Japan. We had a chamomile and rosebud blend. It was quite excellent. We chatted for far too long (later that would cost us a well-deserved parking ticket, but oh well), exchanged cards, then parted company.
The tea shop as it turned out was a small victorian near Cafe Pergolesi. The man inside lives and breathes tea. If there is a western master of zen tea, it is him. The entire time we were there, he was sitting on the floor behind a low table across from a small group, talking to them at length about the different flavors and characters of kinds of tea. Not as a sales pitch, mind you. He was speaking purely out of love. Naturally, he did have quite a collection of new and used tea pots and he let us look at our leisure. There was a drawer in one cabinet with teapots under ten dollars. They were all in lovely shape. None to fancy or kitschy. Simple but functional teapots. We chose a Frankoma Prarie Green 6 cup pot. Made not far from where I was born with the same red clay I remember. It goes well with the house and the forest and is just the right size. I also bought a tin of white tea which was very well priced for its quality. In total I spent twenty dollars at his shop. And, since I happened to think of it, I gave him the lid from my old pot as I had no more need of it and I know people sometimes break a lid and go looking for a replacement. The tea guru seemed pleased.
After the tea shop? Why... More tea! We went across the street to cafe Pergolesi where I got a chai latte and inquired to verify that the Santa Cruz Go club still meets there. It does, but sadly I can't attend right now because it's the same night as one of my classes. But ah well. In a few months perhaps. The chai was, as always, excellent. Perg is where I was first introduced to chai and remains my favorite source of it. (Though Larry's Famous Chai at The White Raven is a close second)
Finally, we decided on our book purchase and headed home and I made us a pot of the white tea. It is absolutely excellent. Will purchase again. Along with our tea, we had some ginger cookies Stacey had bought a few days before. They were quite good but made with honey instead of sugar and were thus lacking a little in the crispness I like in gingersnaps. I speculated though that toasting them slightly might liven them up again, then promptly began devising various biscuit caddies to fit onto a teapot so as to warm and crisp them on the outside of the pot while your tea steeped. Stacey on the other hand came up with the much more practical idea of adding a small hot plate to the base of the electric kettle where they could be toasted while the water heated. I think that perfection of such a device would likely get us both knighted.
Now however, it's time to end this post... I'm out of tea.
PS: My little one seems to be doing better. She's spent most of the day on my lap, putting up with my occasional sniffles. She's ate a little bit and been walking around. Still, her appointment on Monday feels a thousand years away to me.
*Footnote: Namaste is a word used in greeting and I've often heard at the beginning and end of yoga classes. Certain strange symmetry there, given where my head has been recently. Also, the tea house is truly excellent. It's a place I need to takepaka and perlandria
I have been using moving as an excuse to change a few behavior patterns. One of them, is trying to switch from mostly corn-syrup based soft-drinks as my default flavor beverage to tea with occasional sugar based soft-drinks. So far I've been pretty successful. I'm down from 2-3 cans of coke a day to 2-3 per week of $soda.
One of the first things we bought for the new house is a nice electric kettle. We had a nice range top kettle for some time but was getting a bit old. The electric is also faster and increases my odds of having tea. I'd been using the one at work for a while and decided it was the best method.
Naturally, when we moved, the only dish that got broken was my teapot. I'd been drinking mostly pre-bagged tea for the past few years so it wasn't initially a huge concern but it had been on my 'todo' list to find an adequate replacement. The old pot was only a 2 cup pot anyhow and had always felt a bit small.
So. I banded the old one back together with a bit of wire (it was cracked through but not shattered) and I am now using it as a pot to grow compact mini basil. Already little green leaves are peaking out the spout.
On Saturday there was a Freecycle Free-for-all event. (Everyone brings stuff to a pre-destined time and place and the majority of it gets new homes) My range-top kettle and many other things went with and found new homes where they will hopefully be loved for some time to come. In one of the boxes with the lid to my broken teapot, so I stuck it in my pocket to remind me that I wanted to look for a new pot while we were out. We slouched through a couple of book shops, looking for the best reference we could find on building stone stairways and patios. Prior to an expensive vet visit, we had planned to start rebuilding the stairs to our house soon.
The pot lid worked as intended and reminded me that there was a tea shop I had wanted to check out which I thought might be a good place to find a kettle. So Stacey and I began walking there, then we were stopped by a handsome older woman and her friend who asked if we knew where to find another tea house. She was visiting the area from Sonoma. As it happened, I did know roughly where it was and mentioned the irony that I was on my way to buy a teapot. At which point she promptly invited us with her to *Namaste. She's a fascinating woman. Older lesbian with a long term partner. She's traveled the world, living in Japan, Africa, and everywhere else, working as a professional psychologist. She talked a lot about tea ceremony and the way she'd been taught to pour tea in Japan. We had a chamomile and rosebud blend. It was quite excellent. We chatted for far too long (later that would cost us a well-deserved parking ticket, but oh well), exchanged cards, then parted company.
The tea shop as it turned out was a small victorian near Cafe Pergolesi. The man inside lives and breathes tea. If there is a western master of zen tea, it is him. The entire time we were there, he was sitting on the floor behind a low table across from a small group, talking to them at length about the different flavors and characters of kinds of tea. Not as a sales pitch, mind you. He was speaking purely out of love. Naturally, he did have quite a collection of new and used tea pots and he let us look at our leisure. There was a drawer in one cabinet with teapots under ten dollars. They were all in lovely shape. None to fancy or kitschy. Simple but functional teapots. We chose a Frankoma Prarie Green 6 cup pot. Made not far from where I was born with the same red clay I remember. It goes well with the house and the forest and is just the right size. I also bought a tin of white tea which was very well priced for its quality. In total I spent twenty dollars at his shop. And, since I happened to think of it, I gave him the lid from my old pot as I had no more need of it and I know people sometimes break a lid and go looking for a replacement. The tea guru seemed pleased.
After the tea shop? Why... More tea! We went across the street to cafe Pergolesi where I got a chai latte and inquired to verify that the Santa Cruz Go club still meets there. It does, but sadly I can't attend right now because it's the same night as one of my classes. But ah well. In a few months perhaps. The chai was, as always, excellent. Perg is where I was first introduced to chai and remains my favorite source of it. (Though Larry's Famous Chai at The White Raven is a close second)
Finally, we decided on our book purchase and headed home and I made us a pot of the white tea. It is absolutely excellent. Will purchase again. Along with our tea, we had some ginger cookies Stacey had bought a few days before. They were quite good but made with honey instead of sugar and were thus lacking a little in the crispness I like in gingersnaps. I speculated though that toasting them slightly might liven them up again, then promptly began devising various biscuit caddies to fit onto a teapot so as to warm and crisp them on the outside of the pot while your tea steeped. Stacey on the other hand came up with the much more practical idea of adding a small hot plate to the base of the electric kettle where they could be toasted while the water heated. I think that perfection of such a device would likely get us both knighted.
Now however, it's time to end this post... I'm out of tea.
PS: My little one seems to be doing better. She's spent most of the day on my lap, putting up with my occasional sniffles. She's ate a little bit and been walking around. Still, her appointment on Monday feels a thousand years away to me.
*Footnote: Namaste is a word used in greeting and I've often heard at the beginning and end of yoga classes. Certain strange symmetry there, given where my head has been recently. Also, the tea house is truly excellent. It's a place I need to take
paka and perlandria 
