Morning ritual

Match sticks too old to light,

go to the stove, ignite. 

Bring in candles 

incense too. 

Sit at your desk 

As pen plays on paper.

Jot this, ponder that. 

Calm your mind, sip tea. 

Hours can pass 

often do. 

Life IS a dream, 

just be you.

Sun-shining February day

Blue willow cup stained

With memory of teas past

Alight writing hand

Paper now to sass!

Winter-blues gone

At least in this hour

Counting on a full cup

And only to flower.

up before the sun

I've been up since 5 a.m., made some tea and cruised the web. The sky is just starting to lighten to a purplish blue. Still there is snow on the ground. It is cold. Wonder what today will bring?

I've been reading (over and over again) "My Lord Loves a Pure Heart" by Swami Chidvilasananda. Underlining passages and writing down sentences I like. All my books save just a couple are still boxed away from the move. How I miss my books! Maybe today I could get a new one.

We have yet to get our new license plates. We have been here 2 months now. And still when we go out shopping or to eat...I look around and feel as if I am in another world. Everyone is SO "Midwestern".
Just say'in....

I don't want to loose what I have learned while living south. And already I can feel twinges of wanting to fit in here...

my first home made cup of...

chai tea. And it tastes fantastic! This is what I did:

All our small sauce pans are still packed away in the garage so I used a stainless steel bowel on the stove. I added 2 cups of water to the bowel. Once the water started getting hot I added some crushed cardamon seeds and crushed fennel seeds. Let the water come to a boil and then added one (opened bag) tea bag of chia spice tea. Then turn the water off cover the bowel and let steep for about 5 minutes. While it is steeping warm up about 1/4 cup of coconut milk with a sweetener to the desired sweetness. I finely grated some nutmeg into the coconut milk also . I used Xylitol for my sweetener but you may use sugar, honey or any other sweetener you perfer.

Put half of the warm milk into a cup and using a strainer pour half the tea into cup too. Stir good and garnish with a few strands of saffron!!!

Oh my living God! This tastes so good!

You can get 2 delicious cups out of this recipe.

I have had this saffron (the most expensive spice in the world) for a few months now. Having received it from my sister who married into an Arabic family and lived overseas for a few years. It is my GOLD! I've only used it a couple of other times with rice dishes. I always feel like Royalty whenever I cook with it or even look at it in the bottle. There is not much left. And the bottle was only filled about 1/2 inch when I received it.