Meh

I haven't posted on here for a while, because there's nothing much happening in my life at the moment. And what little has happened has been bad. My dear little black cat, Jiro, was run over and killed last Wednesday, so things have been a bit doomy here. He should have had a longer life, he was such a sweetie. I still have my lovely Thomas, who has been a comfort, but it's very quiet without Jiro, who was a full-on little guy.
   We've had a terrible summer here, cold and wet. The farmers are overjoyed, because the countryside has been in a drought for some time, but for townies who wanted a summer it's been a disaster. The fruit is a sour, for lack of sunlight, and vegetables like tomatoes and zucchini, that normally go well, are non-existent. I have some tiny green tomatoes, but there's no way that they will ripen by summer's end, even if we have another five weeks of good weather. Our first frost is usually about the second week of April, so there's not much time left now. The pears are starting to fall, but they are tasteless; even the birds don't seem very interested.
  Ho hum.

Rediscovering tea

One of my New Year's resolutions was to drink less coffee. As I've got older and my digestive processes more delicate, coffee has become less palatable to me, and now gives me cracking indigestion. Much of my coffee drinking is habit, the same way a smoker smokes; get to the end of a task, sit down and have a coffee, get tired or bored, have a coffee, stumble out of bed in the morning, have a coffee. Going on the premise that it is easier to replace a bad habit with a better one, rather than just going totally cold turkey, I've been rediscovering tea.

I've put the coffee-making equipment away, and have given more open shelf room to teas of various kinds. My standard teas are Lapsang Souchong, Earl Grey and Irish Breakfast (tastier than English Breakfast to my palate). Lapsang is very refreshing after a hot, tiring day in the garden; its smoky taste reminds me of billy tea. Earl Grey is for when I want to go posh, with little sandwiches and tea-cake and amusing company. Irish Breakfast is my breakfast tea of choice, tastier and more nuanced than English Breakfast , reminding me pleasantly of Mrs Doyle and Father Ted. ("Ah, go wan, Father, will ye have a cup of tea, there?")

And then of course, there are the herbal teas. Lemon and ginger is refreshing and warming, peppermint and spearmint for the digestion, lemon balm when there's no lemon available, or you could use lemongrass. (Iced lemongrass tea is wonderful on a very hot day. I had some once when I had a day stopover in Singapore and was exploring the old fort, in filthy humid weather that made me feel feverish.) And I have Indian tea spice mix, which can be brewed on its own or added to ordinary tea. The great thing about the herbal teas is that you can grow them very, very cheaply in the garden. I'm growing some spearmint cuttings in my Bramble teapot at the moment, and  I'm pretty sure they've rooted so I'll pot them up soon and give them away. Teapots and caddies are also nice to have on display. I think there's a name for people who collect tea paraphernalia, but I can't think of what it might be. 

Of course, the other appeal is that tea is much cheaper than coffee, and I have less sugar in it, which will hopefully result in better health and a slimmer waistline. I'll still have coffee but not at the rate of consumption that has been my wont in the past. Or I'll have it at work where the company pays for it!

Happy Epiphany!

                                             One candle for each Wise Man

Seeds

Red hollyhock seed.

Sorting seeds today, part of the decluttering/rationalisation project. I have bags of seeds that have been sitting around since last year:

 I put them in brown paper bags to dry off, then stuffed them in a shelf in my writing desk, where they've taken up a lot of room. So now I've removed the chaff and bits and packaged them up like so:

Much more compact. I'm not sure whether these are still viable, I'll have a go at germinating them soon. Meanwhile, the cats have been busy sleeping.

Thom shares my bed

Jiro gets the whole spare room to himself

In the afternoon, they both move to the conservatory, to take up their favourite chairs...

and rest some more.