Mmmm. Where to begin?
When you have arrived at a point in your chronological age best described by the tired, but kindly euphemism, a woman of a certain age . Mmmm—again. I think the dilemma deserves a second Mmmm.
- Email Wild Goose Mama at carol@wildgoosemama.com.
A vision flashed into my head of Snoopy atop his dog house earnestly hunched over his typewriter keying out, “It was a dark and stormy night”. Visions of copyright lawyers danced in my head. Mmmm number three. It’s probably best to stick with the truth sprinkled with a few embellishments to make it all the more interesting.
It all began on a hot and sunny day five years ago in a second hand store in Canada on Vancouver Island. On a dusty shelf tucked between a rusty egg beater and a ceramic hen and matching rooster with a chip on his wattle, I spied a charming Blue Willow teapot. She (there was no doubt this was a female teapot) was quietly sitting, perusing passerby’s, waiting for a new owner. I am honored to share what she later communicated. As soon as she spotted me, she knew I was THE one. So she inched closer to the outer edge of the shelf, nudging the egg beater within pecking distance of the ceramic rooster and hen. Mayhem was about to erupt. But when I picked her off the shelf for a closer look, I inadvertently pushed the egg beater out of reach of the territorial chicken pair. Aye she was a beauty. Softly rounded, with nary a blemish, her timeless blue and white Chinese willow design was clear and crisp. This was a classic case of love at first sight.
Never before had I owned a teapot—-remember we are talking about woman who had been around the block so many times, there were grooves in the concrete. My heretofore tea experiences consisted of putting a tea bag in a cup. Slam, bang and it was done. However now I owned a teapot and therefore I felt beholden to make tea in the right and proper way. Thus fate nudged me down a path that I had never noticed before.
Like Dorothy on the yellow brick road innocently looking for the Wizard, I began my journey merely looking for instructions as to the right way to brew tea and which tea to choose. A splendid discovery emerged—the tea road could whisk me anywhere everywhere any time. It’s heavenly to be so intrigued and genuinely full of excitement about a subject after five years. We have all heard the adage how important it is to enjoy the journey. That’s exactly what it has been like for me, a journey involving beauty, health, history, geography, taste experiences, culinary delights, art and awesome people. I invite you to join me—–or not, but you would be missing out.
-Carol