National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month!  Poems share our hearts in ways that regular language cannot. Poetry and tea - fast friends! 

I'm giving NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) a go - want to join me?  30 poems in 30 days.  They don't have to be good.  They just have to be written - and that IS good!  http://www.napowrimo.net/

Today
~Billy Collins

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

A FaceTime Tea Party

Those smiling faces are my mom, sister and niece. We recently had so much fun - SO MUCH FUN - on a virtual tea party! I had sent them goodies from my recent trip to Paris and London. (Side note - I still need to write about the Paris tea adventures!)  

Across the miles, the grownups were enjoying the same Mariage Freres Earl Grey Provence tea. My family tried macarons, madeleines and financiers, treasures that had filled my bag on the return flight. Thank goodness I'm a light packer!  

We spent an hour together over video, laughing and having a wonderful time. Most of us have friends and family who live far away. A virtual tea party (with Skype, FaceTime or other tool) brings them closer and makes happy memories!

Women and Tea - International Women's Day 2016

Image from Library of Congress, taken in 1895

Happy International Women's Day!  Today, I want to share some interesting photos and articles about women's role in the tea world...

Women Tea Pickers (from my travels)

• Flowers of the Tea Field - Images of women who pick tea in Darjeeling
• Weighing in the Tea - Images of women tea pickers, weighing their tea
• Women of Tea - When I travel, I can't stop taking photos of these hard-working women

Women and Boston Tea Party

"Maybe it has only been men who have protested the king up to now.  That only means we women have taken too long to let our voices be heard.  We are signing our names to a document, not hiding ourselves behind costumes like the men in Boston did at their tea party.  The British will know who we are.”  ~Penelope Barker

• Penelope Barker and the Edenton Tea Party in North Carolina and More Here

Women, Tea and Suffrage

• Tea Launched a Revolution
• Crash Course on Hot Tea and Suffrage Movement
• A Cup of Hot Tea with Your Suffrage History Lesson Part 1 and Part II

Other Interesting Articles

• An article by Eve Hill in Teamuse
• Drinking Tea Was Scandalous for Irish Women