Tea Talk
Tea Talk
There is nothing like a cup of tea to diminish the chill of November.
Whether you enjoy it in a dainty china tea cup or in a hearty earthenware mug, whether you prefer delicate jasmine tea or a stimulating lemon zing, tea represents a fragrant, simple way to bring just a little more comfort into everyday life. Why not set aside a morning or afternoon for this enjoyable pursuit?....
Victorian high teas are lovely in their place, but you need not have gilded bone china, the finest linen tablecloth, or fancy platters of sugared treats. All that is truly required for an enjoyable time is—tea. You do not have to be decked in a flowered hat, perfume or your nicest dress. Tea is nice and probably best appreciated when you are tired and in your cleaning clothes.
from “The Pleasures of Taking Tea”
Many people of diverse cultures have sung the praises of a cup of tea. Here are their words and verse.
The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose. George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft.
Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company. Unknown.
Find yourself a cup of tea; the teapot is behind you. Now tell me about hundreds of things. Saki.
There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea. Bernard-Paul Heroux.
Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary. Chinese Proverb.
If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed it will cheer you. If you are excited it will calm you. William Gladstone, 1865.
There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady.
My hour for tea is half-past five, and buttered toast waits for nobody. Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White.
He brewed tea in a blue china pot, poured it into a chipped white cup with forget-me-nots on the handles, and dropped in a dollop of honey and cream. ‘I am,’ he sighed deeply, ‘contented as a clam.’ Ethel Pochocki, Wildflower Tea.
A Proper Tea is much nicer than a Very Nearly Tea, which one you forget about afterwards. A. A. Milne.
You will never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. C. S. Lewis.
There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims.
I always fear that creation will expire before teatime. Sydney Smith.
Remember the tea kettle—it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings! Unknown.
We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven’t had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the universe.
Rudyard Kipling.
Bread and water can so easily be
toast and tea.
Unknown.
Text: Tea Talk. © Handmaidens of the Shepherd, November 2008.
Photograph: Country Tea Party. © Handmaidens of the Shepherd, November 2008.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008