wintry tea

I am taking my tea today at my desk

mandarin orange spice tea with cerulean blue hue water

a tasty combo for the senses

senses that are dulled in winter by an everlasting oystershell sky

paynes grey hue

but with a little photo editing I have a change in latitude

cerulean blue hue

***

how are things at your latitude?

I think it's thrilling to share tea with the far reaches of the world

I imagine us all under the same sky - varying degrees - different hues

stuff and sky

I've stuffed 6 matchboxes

I like to make these with a theme in mind

such as:

(top row)

time for love, ocean memory, heartland

(bottom row)

spring fever, journey, a stitch in time

I like to think of these as the contents of an 8 year old child's pockets

emptied out before wash day

my next task is creating the outer sleeve

(a future post)

*

my sky picture today is taken from the car at dusk

matchbox stuffing

... well, getting ready to that is ...

(previous posts: matchbox stuffing)

isn't it pretty?

all this fairy treasure sparkling in the sunlight?

Tomorrow:

creating the matchbox

my sky

I have no art to brag about today

just this beautiful sky not made by human hands

(see Jill Ruth for her sky)

we are all under the same and different sky

xoxo

snow water

Snow Water

a poem

-by Michael Longley

A fastidious brewer of tea, a tea

Connoisseur as well as a poet,

I modestly request on my sixtieth

Birthday a gift of snow water.

Tea steam and ink stains. Single-

Mindedly I scald my tea pot and

Measure out some Silver Needles Tea,

Enough for a second steeping.

Other favorites include Clear

Distance and Eyebrows of Longevity

Or, from precarious mountain peaks,

Cloud Mist Tea (quite delectable)

Which competent monkeys harvest

Filling their baskets with choice leaves

And bringing them down to where I wait

With my crock of snow water.

our snow is melting now

and our weather forecast is back to it's rainy self portrait

either way is fine

we like it damp around here

good weather for ducks, mushrooms and trees

... and tea!

*

are you taking tea?

... perhaps you have some snow water to brew it in ...

I'm curious about Silver Needles Tea

or Clear Distance Tea

are they real or poetic?

walking in a winter wonderland

some photos from a walk with my love today

studying

with all of this snow I have been rather house bound

(7 and a half inches so far)

a good time to "study"

these are my attempts at a "naturalist study" type of painting

(what I learned in watercolor class from high school is slowly coming back to me)

I had a classical watercolor artist (Ross Shellenberger) as a teacher

... I wish I could call him up with a question or two!

I am finding this to be a good escape right now

(all 5 of us are housebound)

but when I get into a painting I lose track of place and time and find quiet amid the commotion

... exactly what got me through the high school years ...