Hot Tea Month

Although it’s a little late in the game, January is National Hot Tea Month. I’m not sure how many writers have taken a strong stance in the coffee v. tea debate, but I’m sure it’s a hot one! (Get it? Strong, hot coffee and tea! Hehe!)

Let me make my position perfectly clear. I am a tea-drinker, although that’s not always been the case. I used to drink coffee, but stopped during my second pregnancy with my son. Coffee didn’t make me sick, but for some reason, the mere mention or smell of it was just wrong. So I switched to tea. Now that my son is older, I can and do enjoy a cup of coffee occasionally, but my natural instinct is to drink tea, and lots of it.

Turns out, I’m in good company. George Orwell also enjoyed his tea, and wrote an essay titled “A Nice Cup of Tea” that was first published in the London Evening Standard on Jan. 12, 1946, in which he outlines the 11 steps* necessary to brew tea:

 1.  Use Indian or Ceylonese tea
 2.  Brew tea in a china (ceramic) or earthenware pot
 3.  Warm the pot before adding the loose-leaf tea
 4.  Use strong tea
 5.  Place loose-leaf tea directly into the pot without a strainer, muslin bag, or other device to   'imprison the tea.' Take the teapot to the kettle to pour water that should be boiling
 6.  Stir or shake the pot
 7.  Drink the tea out of a cylindrical cup
 8.  Decant any cream off of the fresh milk before using
 9.  Pour tea into the cup, then pour in the milk
10. Drink tea without sugar

So you still have a few days left to read the entire essay (see link below) during the wintry January weather that is perfect for enjoying a steaming hot cup of tea.

Write soon,

Mary

*Steps from: http://www.teaandcoffee.net/0709/tea.htm

Read the entire essay online at http://www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm

Image from: http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0077/8972/files/George-Orwell.jpg?2985

George Orwell: 'A Nice Cup of Tea' reprinted in The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell 1968

Continue space monkey story here

I’m pretty organized when it comes to my work, and I keep file folders labeled according to topics so with a quick glance I can figure out what’s in them. But today I went to my “Blog 2015” file where I store ideas for future blog posts, and read the following sentence: Continue space monkey story here.

The problem is, I don't recall ever having written a space monkey story, or remember hearing or reading about a monkey in space that would be pertinent to my blog. I honestly have no idea what this means, except for the fact that 2015 is obviously not going as well as I had hoped.

How about you? Do you ever find bits and pieces of information you have written down with no clue as to what it means?

Write soon,

Mary