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Posted an hour ago on FB, sharing here for your amusement:

Career tip: I strongly advise against taking up cat juggling, particularly after the age of 40. You’ll likely end up sitting woefully balancing a bag of frozen chicken noodles on your sprained foot and picking sawdust out of your backside.

I’ll leave the highly unglamorous details to your imagination. A tango it wasn’t.

Pride is bruised as much as the tootsie. I needed something sweet to make it all better. Cocoa with orange, bag in.

Confession first: this isn’t Celestial Seasonings; it’s looseleaf bulk from the local herb & indie grocery, but I’m too lazy to poke through 64 pages of peppermint brands trying to find what fits.

There.

Stomach bug keeping me at home today. Much improved since 2 a.m. but need to be near the, uh, proper facilities.

But I can be under the weather just as easily sitting outside in cool sunshine as I can indoors.

Anyway, plain peppermint leaves—first thing I grabbed when I felt like I could ingest anything. Can’t beat it for tummy uglies, clogged sinuses, or other assorted miz’ries. Will contend further that there is no need to pay for anything upscale or brand name. Plain ol’ Cheapster Steepster peppermint leaves, steeped strong—-keep some in your medicine cabinet. Cold and flu season coming.

Down to the last part of a pouch of this … hunted it up deliberately. The weather is butterscotch today, and this is a perfect pairing. What’s butterscotch weather, you ask? Sunny, dry, cool; enough breeze to freshen your face, enough sunshine to keep your bare toes warm while Tazo takes a snooze curled up like a lump of pumpernickel in your lap. Butterscotch.

So is this amazing green tea. I don’t know if it’s the everlasting flowers that add the sweet-butter to it; don’t think I’ve ever had them in any other blend. It is, however, a little picky. Minute and a half steep time—and you’d better really watch the clock, otherwise it bitters up.

One would expect, with the name of this particular tea, eau de Hershey bar. Not so, but that’s not a bad thing.

Take a really rich black tea base and tease it with dark chocolate. Just a hint—-like swishing a silk scarf along your cat’s back just to watch his tail twitch and his ears tingle. That’s the kind of whiff you get when you sip this one.

One suspects that the addition of milk would change the silk scarf into a flannel baby blanket. Haven’t tried that yet, but we’re gonna.

Thanks to Terriharplady. This was a perfect slow Sunday morning tea. (Which will perk up shortly with the addition of 12 to 15 ten-year-olds. My teaching partner describes working with this bunch as herding cats or cockroaches in zero gravity.)

This is very non tea-y, but I’m on Cup #3 and the brain cells are just not firing this morning. Trying to describe in print what I could demonstrate in a second and a half. Are these instructions clear enough for you to follow, especially those of you who grew up without seeing it demonstrated weekly by Mickey, Davy, Mike, and Peter?

Face forward with arms around your partner’s shoulders. In unison, partners throw their right legs forward and out (your right leg will cross your partner’s left leg). Then partners throw their left legs out and forward.

Thank you for the consultation.

It’s so cool this morning, the quilt I just washed and hung out on the line is steaming—I can see its breath!

Sometimes, it’s less the flavor and quality of the tea than it is the aesthetics. Boiling a kettle instead of pushing a button, making a whole pot instead of a hurry-up cup, watching the Tardis appear and disappear on the mug (heat-sensing mugs kind of mess with the granny vibe, but hey).

But this morning, we’re not skimping on flavor or quality, either. This is good stuff, even though I under-leafed. Not getting the usual cocoa-coating in the mouth; leans more to the fruity side today.

Happy fall.

Lemon is my favorite out of this little gift tin collection. Pastry lemon. Not zinger lemon. Hubby made special stop at farmers’ market today to get petit fours from the German family that brings baked goods (wonderful almond flavor)—-lemon green complemented it nicely.

Nothing new to say here; this has turned into the standby remedy for long and weary knots-in-the-neck days. If you haven’t tried it, there are dozens of branded and bagged tulsi, but I don’t think you can do much better than plain ol’ herb store bulk bin leaf.

I need cookies. I need fudge frosting straight out of the tub. I’m making do with a nice gentle cup of this instead. This is as pleasant out-of-season as it is in December. Have you tried it yet?

This one had been relegated to the back of the shelf for summer hiatus. It has been missed: bagged tea that is strong enough to wake you but smooth enough not to bludgeon you; not picky about steep times. With milk. Mmm.