SUMMER LEAVES
You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to see me.—C.S. Lewis
What is more enticing in summer than a hammock swinging beneath the acacia tree, and a book to go with it?—these, and a tea paired to your whim, because tea should match your mood as much as the novel or poet you’ve pulled from the shelf.
I am unwilling to give up tea in even the most sweltering weather. A few cubes of ice in a honeysuckle or plum-berry brew is refreshment itself. {When I’m on the go, a little sachet of peach tea goes into my water bottle.}
Here are a few book and tea pairings for the season: nourishing leaves for the mind and for the body. Hammock is not included {but highly recommended}!
{PICTURE BOOK}
Thunder has chased everyone from the swimming pool, and we towel off and shiver in the thin breeze. No one is ready to call it a day, so we read a picture book while we wait for the sky to clear again.
PAGOO {Holling C. Holling}
This delightful and funny book tells the story of Pegarus {Pagoo, for short}, following his development from a tiny, feathery creature to a happy, two-fisted hermit crab. Always with him is Old Pal Instinct, who advises and directs him through many adventures in the tidal pools.
The story is interesting for itself, but also richly informative. The reader will not only learn about hermit crabs, but about barnacles, carbs, snails, starfish, mussels, and other fascinating sea creatures in their habitat.
Plum Berry {Rishi Tea}
This palest pink tea is fruity and floral with surprising vibrancy. fruity, floral, sweet
Ingredients: organic white tea, organic rosehips, organic blueberries, organic raspberries, organic schizandra berries, organic strawberries, organic Fair Trade certified™ hibiscus, natural flavors of lychee and plum
{NOVEL}
The water glitters beneath the sun. Barbecue smoke and sounds of splashing and laughter fill the air. Sunday dinner is almost ready, but there should be time first for a chapter or two of light reading.
Swallows and Amazons {Arthur Ransome}
This is a thoroughly delightful book full of fun, facts, and fresh air!
While camping on a little island the Walker siblings {the Swallows} meet the Blackett sisters {the Amazons} and begin their camaraderie with friendly warfare; but they soon declare a treaty and unite forces against the Blackett’s uncle, the notorious Captain Flint.
Peach Blossom {Rishi Tea}
This golden brew is heady with the sweetness of jasmine flowers. The perfume is cut by juicy peaches. floral, fruity, sweet
Ingredients: organic white tea, natural peach flavor, natural essential oils of orange, tangerine and organic jasmine flowers
{NONFICTION}
There is something about the warmth and vitality of summer that calls for self-exertion—new and challenging exercise routines and new and challenging books.
The Living Page {Laurie Bestvater}
The foundational theme of all Bestvater’s book is that the notebook is an instrument—a medium of personal transformation—rather than a product... She asks, ‘What if the emphasis is meant to be on the formative process—the growing person, rather than the artifact or achievement itself?’
...Bestvater outlines and describes the ‘Three Pillars’: the Nature Journal, the Commonplace and the Book of Centuries, as well as notebooks, charts and timelines mentioned more briefly in Mason’s writings. When are they introduced? What is the purpose of each? How do they change with the development of the student? How can we set up our children for success, without usurping their own work in education?
Organic Spicy Ginger {Rishi Tea}
This is a ginger like no other. This straw-colored brew is richly aromatic, with an intriguing blend of spice and floral notes. This warming blend is spicy-sweet with a surprising undercurrent of freshness. spicy, warm, sweet, floral notes
Ingredients: {all organically grown) ginger, orange peel, green rooibos, lemon verbena, chamomile, fennel, licorice root, natural flavors with orange essential oil
{POETRY}
One of those fierce summer storms has chased you inside, but the brightness of poetry will burn through the wavering veil of blue and silver.
Poems of Robert Herrick {ed. Winfield Townley Scott} This cheerily-colored little volume is a good introduction to the seventeenth-century poet called ‘the sweetest of songsters.’
‘It is the music of another age, another world,’ Scott writes in his introduction, ‘so superbly written that it moves us; foreign to us, yet not remote; different from any authentic music of ours, yet thrilling still.’
An anthology of the Cavalier poet’s best-loved poems and epigrams is introduced by a brief biography and illustrated by Ellen Raskins’s sparse pencil drawings.
There is some modernization of the poems, especially of spelling. Scott apologizes in his ‘Preparatory Note’ for the rare substitution of a more modern word when the original is ‘so obsolete as to be undiscoverable in a large dictionary.’
Scarlet Citrus Rooibos {TAZO}
This is a scarlet brew of brightly acidic fruit with a lingering cinnamon warmth. fruity, acidic, tangy, warm
Ingredients: African rooibos (red bush), hibiscus flowers, lemon verbena, orange peel, rosemary, lemon balm, citric acid, natural flavors
{PLAY}
The eastern horizon is just tinged with apricot, but already the air is heavy with humidity and heat. Today, you will shed your studies and household tasks to frolic in realms of fantasy.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream {William Shakespeare} Shakespeare escorts you into a fantastically sparkling world in which cavorting fairies interfere with mortal romance. I admit my groundling status; my favorite scenes were the buffoonish antics of Bottom and company, which reminded me of our own home performances.
Honeysuckle White Tea {Republic of Tea}
‘So doth the woodbine, the sweet honeysuckle, gently entwine...’ This straw-colored brew is a delicate white tea that lingers in sweet notes of honeysuckle. delicate, green, floral, astringent
Ingredients: organic white tea and natural honeysuckle flavoring
• Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, with a cup of ‘Honeysuckle White Tea’ by the Republic of Tea •
June 14, 2014