I woke up to rain on the roof this morning and contemplated having a pyjama day, but decided that I had too much energy to laze around in my pyjamas. I made up a batch of wholemeal cheese scones for my brunch. I have to admit I am a lousy scone maker, my scones are often very dense and don’t rise but still very filling and tasty. I still have the bite of the Cayenne Pepper on my tongue.
I chose a new tea to try today Kukicha, it is a green tea made primarily from the stalks of the sencha bush with a small amount of leaf added. I thought that being made from the stalks it would be quite a robust tea and good match for my scones. Instead I found it to be a bright, cleansing taste which was still a good match for my dense and heavy scones as it cleared the palette. Kukicha described by TLeafT as having “a unique, slightly nutty, sweet aroma and with the lowest caffeine levels of traditional green teas.” For me the scent of the teas was light, sweet and with a freshness reminiscent of a sunny summer dawn. The tea leaves are long thin chopped stalks and a thin powdery leaf, as the water is poured over the tea it becomes very thick, taking a while for the water to drain through into the pot. The colour is golden green with the sweet scent. As I said very bright and cleansing I really enjoyed this tea and will certainly be getting more of it.
Today I have another gift, the presence of Khepra curled up purring in my arms while I am typing this. Khepra is normally an outside cat, coming in for his meals then heading back out. It is when the weather get cold he comes inside to sleep so he has been inside overnight a little more lately but it is unusual for him to be inside during the day and even more so for him to curl up the way he is now. He and Aurora are about ten/eleven years old well into middle age, heading towards old age so maybe I will have more times like this with my lovely, big, gentle boy.
I was pleased to get into the garden yesterday and get some of the winter maintenance work done and it is a good thing it is raining today as my shoulder is a bit painful and the weather stops me from pushing my shoulder too hard. A friend gave me a Tree Dhalia and unfortunately in a storm at the end of summer it broke at the base. I took the two stems cut them back and put them in the ground in a more sheltered area. While pruning yesterday I saw that both stems are coming away beautifully. I am reading a series of “Pyschic Visions” murder/suspense/relationship stories by Dale Mayer. They are quick reads and I have read “Into The Abyss” and “Tuesday’s Child” over last couple of days and currently on “Hide and Seek” and really enjoying them. My musings today are on solitude for my life to have balance solitude is an essential requirement. During the working week I am surrounded by people; people needing help, needing someone to hear them, by needing to take time to listen and to focus on each person individual requirements. I am surrounded by constant chatter which often has no meaning, no depth, shallow sounds coming in waves. This is all energy stealing so for me being home alone in solitude is restorative. It is the time and space where the well of energy is filled to meet the requirement of the people that fill the other part of my weeks.
“Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of man’s being alone. It has created the word “loneliness” to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word “solitude” to express the glory of being alone.” ― Paul Tillich, The Eternal Now
“There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more” ― George Gordon Byron
“Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt In solitude, where we are least alone.” ― George Gordon Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
My blessing to you all. May yours times of solitude be full of the glory of yourself and in your times of interaction generate sparks of energy to refill your well.
Image from my Virtues Album - Tranquility
