Fiber Dreams

On tea

On Tuesday my friend Denise came over to help me try these tea blooms that I got from Christina for the first tea swap on Ravelry.

I got out a couple of cappuccino bowls to give the tea plenty of room to grow, and boiled up some water. When we took the tea buds out of their individual packages, they were these small, hard balls of tea leaves. Almost as soon as I started pouring boiling water into the cups, the tea started to move and grow, almost as if it was alive. Tentacles of tea leaves reached out into the hot water, while a flower appeared in the center. The flower almost looked like an over-grown clover blossom.

When I poured the water into the first cup, the tea bud followed it around, attracted by the force of the incoming boiling water. Though it looked cool, it caused the flower to open up more than I think it was really supposed to, showing where the leaves and blossom were tied together. When I poured the water into the second cup, I was more careful, and the tea blossom stayed together more. It stayed together so well that I ended up stirring it around a little bit, gently, to get it to open a tiny bit more, and release more of its flavor and rich color into the water. You can really see the difference in the two blooms after we removed them from the cups.

After we were done playing with our tea we sat down to the serious business of drinking it. And it was delicious! If you’re looking for a tea that tastes good and provides good entertainment value, I definitely recommend giving this one a try. Thank you, Christina!

On roses

Denise is one of those rare people these days who always shows up at the door bearing gifts. On Tuesday she brought some lovely little Madelines to nibble on with our tea, a tiny sweet pumpkin, and this darling miniature rose bush. It’s a Victory Rose, a delightful miniature with sweet-smelling, green-tipped pink blooms. It’s lovely.

Denise told me that she has a similar miniature growing in a small pot, about the size of this turquoise one that I had pansies in this year, outside in her garden. It’s been growing and blooming happily there for about five years now. I need to make a point of getting this lovely little rose into that pot and outside in the sun this weekend. I don’t want to lose it like I did the beautiful miniature that I got last summer. That was most distressing.

Denise and I have been exchanging plants and slips for a number of years now. It’s lots of fun. Sometimes I even get them to live for a while. The chocolate mint she sent me home with in March is barely alive at this point—it hated the hot summer—but I have high hopes for its return now that the weather has cooled off again. It is still alive, so there’s hope.

A few years ago she sent me home with a trio of fuzzy-leaved slips. All three slips lived, and have multiplied in the pot I tucked them into. They’ve flourished, actually, and in spite of because of my efforts they have grown into this huge plant.

The really amazing thing about this plant is that it completely dies back every year. Yes, really. There’s basically nothing visible in the pot by the end of the winter. I know it’s spring when the bright green shoots reappear. By the end of summer the mature leaves turn a kind of bronzy-green color, which is a perfect back­drop for the tiny three-petaled pink flowers that burst forth. Mother Nature comes up with the most incredible color combinations, doesn’t she?

I have lots more to tell you, but I think this post is long enough. Tomorrow I’ll tell you what I did yesterday. I’ll have some knitting content for you, too. Promise!

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