I'm off caffeine.
I'll just let that sink in for a minute ...
I love coffee. I love English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and green teas. Along with loving the beverages, I love the fact and the act of having a cup of coffee with someone I love or with a good friend. Saturday and Sunday mornings, sipping coffee while chatting with my husband ... sweet. Late weekday mornings sipping coffee or tea with the readers of my blog ... very nice.
However, for health and energy reasons I am off caffeine. The truth of the matter is, I feel much better, when I am not consuming any caffeine; I have more energy, I wake up earlier in the morning, accomplish more during my days, and even lose weight more easily when I am off caffeine. For those and other reasons I am off caffeine entirely now.
Thank goodness for Celestial Seasonings. Although I have not found a place anywhere near our farm with a satisfying assortment of Celestial Seasonings teas, and I cannot find my most favorite varieties, I can find some of their tea and it is a good sip.
My favorite variety of all time was RoastAroma, but that was even difficult to find in Los Angeles (I know not why). Their various fruit teas are quite tasty, and today I will have the last bag out of a box of Madagascar Vanilla Red (I think that was the name).
Recently my mother mailed a couple of bags of their Bengal Spice tea my way, so that we could have a cup of tea together via phone, as we are about fifteen hundred miles separated. Friday we had our tea. There isn't anything quite like a nice quiet chat over a cup of tea between mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. It is a sweet, quiet affair providing comfort and charm to a sparkling little corner of a world needing more of both. Our world needs more of such moments, shared, contemplated, and spread out into the void of human consciousness.
During our chat, she told me about a high tea she attended in downtown Denver with two of her daughter-in-laws and one granddaughter. It brought to mind the days just before my now-husband came to Los Angeles last year to fetch me for our wedding and trip across the country to the farm here in New York.
I had returned to Los Angeles, after meeting him face-to-face in New York, on April 5th. I had just over three weeks to prepare myself, my family and friends, and my life for a wedding and a move across the country. He would be flying to Los Angeles on the 28th and we would leave the next day for our wedding and the road trip that was our honeymoon.
It was a happy and sweet thrill ride, the twenty-three days I had to both get ready and say goodbye to California. My rib injury slowed the process down and made it more interesting. Somewhere in the midst of it all I needed to drive up to the California Bay Area for Easter weekend at the beach house with my in-laws from my previous marriage. Although that marriage was brief and had ended twenty years earlier, my in-laws and I had remained friends over the years and I wanted to spend one last beach house vacation with them before the opportunity to do so was more difficult to act on.
The first night I arrived at the beach house, the three of us stayed up late talking about the excitement of what was happening in my life. They were genuinely interested in our love story and wanted as many details as I was willing to share. It was a beautiful evening, and a lovely weekend away ... although the drive up and back was a bit hard on my aching rib.
Once I was back in LA, I had to plan which of my clothing and belongings I absolutely had to have and which I could leave behind in storage. I also had to arrange for a pretty dress for the wedding, shop for a ring for him, help plan our honeymoon road trip, get my hair cut, etc.
Most importantly, however, there was my son, my sister and her family, and my closest friends and associates to spend time with on the west coast while there was still time to do so. And time was whizzing by at a dizzying rate.
The week before he came to get me was filled with lunches, coffees, and teas with dear friends thrilled at my happiness and stunned by my adventure. I had high tea twice that week, plus my sister put on a shower for me that was a tea as well. I had more cucumber sandwiches and scones that week than I will most likely have again in my entire life.
Each get together was sweet and dear in its own way, and treasured as a memory. I had never felt as girly as I did that week, all at once.
Hmm, it's snowing again. We are dusted yet again and made to look pretty as a dessert.
1I do miss my sweet friends, and being able to just put out a call and say to my sister, "Hey, thought I'd drop by for a few minutes to celebrate the moments of our life." Or, to my dear friend Christine, "Can you meet me at Penelope's for tea about ten?" Or, when my friend J.J. who I was renting a room for the few months before leaving, "Want to meet down by he fireplace for a coffee in a couple of minutes?" The warmth, the laughter, the companionship, and the spontaneity ... I do miss all of that.
I look outside at the beautiful snow, the barn, the trees dusted white. I think of my dear husband.
Life is full of tradeoffs. Fruit tea for coffee. Happiness, love, and fulfillment in marriage on a farm in western New York for friends and family in familiar surroundings in Southern California. Though there are many things I miss, I wouldn't miss this experience for anything.
The beauty of today's world is that you can be 3,000 miles away, or 1,500 miles away from a friend of loved one and still manage spontaneous contact, a cup of tea, and the sweetness of chatting with a friend.
So, let's have a cup of whatever together this morning ... my friend.
The photographs today feature roses sent by my son for Valentine's day. Lush and healthy and beautiful ... three are green. Green roses, beautiful.
The UKO (un-identified knitted object) is just that ... un-identified. I'm working on a gift idea, and will share more when I have made more progress.
The yarn, I bought this weekend for a spring time hat I plan to knit for myself.
Thanks for taking the time with me. I wish you a fine and beautiful day.
~firefly
I'm off caffeine.
I'll just let that sink in for a minute ...
I love coffee. I love English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and green teas. Along with loving the beverages, I love the fact and the act of having a cup of coffee with someone I love or with a good friend. Saturday and Sunday mornings, sipping coffee while chatting with my husband ... sweet. Late weekday mornings sipping coffee or tea with the readers of my blog ... very nice.
However, for health and energy reasons I am off caffeine. The truth of the matter is, I feel much better, when I am not consuming any caffeine; I have more energy, I wake up earlier in the morning, accomplish more during my days, and even lose weight more easily when I am off caffeine. For those and other reasons I am off caffeine entirely now.
Thank goodness for Celestial Seasonings. Although I have not found a place anywhere near our farm with a satisfying assortment of Celestial Seasonings teas, and I cannot find my most favorite varieties, I can find some of their tea and it is a good sip.
My favorite variety of all time was RoastAroma, but that was even difficult to find in Los Angeles (I know not why). Their various fruit teas are quite tasty, and today I will have the last bag out of a box of Madagascar Vanilla Red (I think that was the name).
Recently my mother mailed a couple of bags of their Bengal Spice tea my way, so that we could have a cup of tea together via phone, as we are about fifteen hundred miles separated. Friday we had our tea. There isn't anything quite like a nice quiet chat over a cup of tea between mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. It is a sweet, quiet affair providing comfort and charm to a sparkling little corner of a world needing more of both. Our world needs more of such moments, shared, contemplated, and spread out into the void of human consciousness.
During our chat, she told me about a high tea she attended in downtown Denver with two of her daughter-in-laws and one granddaughter. It brought to mind the days just before my now-husband came to Los Angeles last year to fetch me for our wedding and trip across the country to the farm here in New York.
I had returned to Los Angeles, after meeting him face-to-face in New York, on April 5th. I had just over three weeks to prepare myself, my family and friends, and my life for a wedding and a move across the country. He would be flying to Los Angeles on the 28th and we would leave the next day for our wedding and the road trip that was our honeymoon.
It was a happy and sweet thrill ride, the twenty-three days I had to both get ready and say goodbye to California. My rib injury slowed the process down and made it more interesting. Somewhere in the midst of it all I needed to drive up to the California Bay Area for Easter weekend at the beach house with my in-laws from my previous marriage. Although that marriage was brief and had ended twenty years earlier, my in-laws and I had remained friends over the years and I wanted to spend one last beach house vacation with them before the opportunity to do so was more difficult to act on.
The first night I arrived at the beach house, the three of us stayed up late talking about the excitement of what was happening in my life. They were genuinely interested in our love story and wanted as many details as I was willing to share. It was a beautiful evening, and a lovely weekend away ... although the drive up and back was a bit hard on my aching rib.
Once I was back in LA, I had to plan which of my clothing and belongings I absolutely had to have and which I could leave behind in storage. I also had to arrange for a pretty dress for the wedding, shop for a ring for him, help plan our honeymoon road trip, get my hair cut, etc.
Most importantly, however, there was my son, my sister and her family, and my closest friends and associates to spend time with on the west coast while there was still time to do so. And time was whizzing by at a dizzying rate.
The week before he came to get me was filled with lunches, coffees, and teas with dear friends thrilled at my happiness and stunned by my adventure. I had high tea twice that week, plus my sister put on a shower for me that was a tea as well. I had more cucumber sandwiches and scones that week than I will most likely have again in my entire life.
Each get together was sweet and dear in its own way, and treasured as a memory. I had never felt as girly as I did that week, all at once.
Hmm, it's snowing again. We are dusted yet again and made to look pretty as a dessert.
1I do miss my sweet friends, and being able to just put out a call and say to my sister, "Hey, thought I'd drop by for a few minutes to celebrate the moments of our life." Or, to my dear friend Christine, "Can you meet me at Penelope's for tea about ten?" Or, when my friend J.J. who I was renting a room for the few months before leaving, "Want to meet down by he fireplace for a coffee in a couple of minutes?" The warmth, the laughter, the companionship, and the spontaneity ... I do miss all of that.
I look outside at the beautiful snow, the barn, the trees dusted white. I think of my dear husband.
Life is full of tradeoffs. Fruit tea for coffee. Happiness, love, and fulfillment in marriage on a farm in western New York for friends and family in familiar surroundings in Southern California. Though there are many things I miss, I wouldn't miss this experience for anything.
The beauty of today's world is that you can be 3,000 miles away, or 1,500 miles away from a friend of loved one and still manage spontaneous contact, a cup of tea, and the sweetness of chatting with a friend.
So, let's have a cup of whatever together this morning ... my friend.
The photographs today feature roses sent by my son for Valentine's day. Lush and healthy and beautiful ... three are green. Green roses, beautiful.
The UKO (un-identified knitted object) is just that ... un-identified. I'm working on a gift idea, and will share more when I have made more progress.
The yarn, I bought this weekend for a spring time hat I plan to knit for myself.
Thanks for taking the time with me. I wish you a fine and beautiful day.
~firefly