31.8.11

the tea of life ...





MYOTT trio with honey glaze - Gordonvale
a recent birthday gift from Stylus - thank you! 


'Tea is a cup of life...'  
[Author Unknown]



Now well into my second pregnancy I have been meditating much of late on the act drinking tea [particularly in light of currently avoiding coffee] and the opportunity it provides for a special moment.  In his book Present Moment Wonderful Moment, Thich Nhat Hanh [Thay] demonstrates how one can develop a series of gathas [or verses] to help oneself become more mindful of many of the things that we do in our day. The idea is to recite a relevant verse whist undertaking the action [however mundane], as a way to remind oneself to focus on the present moment, rather than being caught up in thoughts of other things at the expense of connecting with our selves and our world ...

Here is Thay's gatha on drinking tea...

'This cup of tea in my two hands - 
mindfulness is held uprightly!
My mind and body dwell 
in the very here and now.'
[thich nhat hanh]


hand painted turkish tea cup   
purchased on my arrival in Alice Springs ten years ago
[to the right] a hand painted teacup and saucer  
that i found for Stylus in a Darwin op shop


With a keenly motivated seventeen month old it can be a challenge to find time each day to sit down and mindfully drink a cup of tea, and the temptation is to resort to making a cup on the run.  What I have found though is that this reality actually requires the opposite approach.  I do not now try to find time to have a cup of tea each day - I make time.  And, rather than resorting to a cup on the run, I go to the extra effort of brewing a pot of tea, pouring it into a special cup, and sitting and drinking my tea with an awareness and appreciation of the tea, the pot, the cup and the place in which I have chosen to consume it... 



As a result of my recent efforts I now have three tea drinking gatha's of my own...



appreciating the tea
Brewing a pot of tea 
I hold the pot between my hands
I think of the many hands assisting this tea
On its journey to this pot


appreciating the tea cup I
Pouring tea into the cup
I think of the hands responsible for its crafting
Of the many teas this cup has held
Of the many hands that have held this cup


appreciating the tea cup II
Drinking tea from my worn enamel cup
I delight in the warmth of the campfire
And recall the many beautiful places 
This cup and I have shared




my much loved and well travelled enamel camping cup
 Cape Leverque - Jan 2009



more a coffee cup than a tea cup
 the very same as the two my grandparents drank from 
each morning they were alive ... 


a vietnamese tea pot and cup in the foreground - a gift from a past student
in the back -  tea pot with pink anodised metal tea-cosy
i have had this pot since art school days - twenty years or more now...


'Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company.'  
[Author Unknown]


a Johnsons of Australia trio
 one of a set of two that I adore 
love that yellow and the squaring of the plates and cup 


... and for those who are looking for guidance on how to best prepare a brew; below is author George Orwell's guide to making A Nice Cup of Tea.  Orwell's passion for the perfect cup can come across as quite intense in present times; remembering of course he was writing this piece during a time of rationing.  The rarity of tea at the time creating the desire to have each cup be the best experience it could.  I am particularly partial to points 5,7,10 and 11!


A Nice Cup of Tea

George Orwell 

 from The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell
Volume 3, 1943-45 Penguin

If you look up 'tea' in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.
This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.
When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

1.     First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea.
2.     Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.
3.     Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.
4.     Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.
5.     Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.
6.     Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.
7.     Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.
8.     Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.
9.     Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.
10.  Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.
11.   Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.



Some people would answer that they don't like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one's ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

26.8.11

monochroma III - beautiful atrophy ...

silos - Laura

silos - Laura

silos - Laura

hand-painted sign on a shed - Babinda

the [sugar cane] mill - Babinda

traces of past foliage on a concrete wall - Cairns

traces of past foliage on a concrete wall - Cairns

the chimneys - Atherton Tablelands

hotel - Mossman


abandoned house - Mossman

plastic flowers on grave - Cooktown

plaster shell on grave - Cooktown

23.8.11

the return of aplonis metallica ...

metallic/shining starling aplonis metallica, flying inYarrabah 2011

the metallic/shining starlings have returned
to again grace our shores
all glossy black a-shimmer - together
dipping turning twirling
all a-chatter 
scattered through the branches 
of three trees 
where they will make their wet season home

last year i watched with delight 
at the villages 
erected 
fussed-over 
protected 
by the all-seeing all-knowing
a-glowing red eye
and the teams together foraging
alternating with those guarding
co-operation on such a scale 
 the indian mynas* could but stare!

remaining until the young shone too 
by april flew
trees shedding leaves
to reveal
nest after empty nest 

rest

comes ever august
now thick with green 
these branches team 
again 
with life 


metallic/shining starlings aplonis metallica, guarding nests, Yarrabah 2010


metallic/shining starlings aplonis metallica, guarding nests, Yarrabah 2010

17.8.11

sounds & sweet airs ...



mission bay - yarrabah
early evening subtle light - yet
the shore is aglow with freshly loosened flowers - bright
delicate droplets 
that rest for a moment on the sand 
then commence a silent dance
choreographed by the wind
each flower turning together in time
perfectly aligned 
and i too am silent 
reveling 
in the beauty of music - unheard
and the conductor - unseen






13.8.11

ella bay - may you stay - forever like this ...






on a saturday drive to innisfail Stylus, Dante and I  spontaneously decided to take the [dirt] road less travelled and found ourselves amidst the spectacular and pristine sands of ella bay...

completely awestruck at the beauty unfolding effortlessly about us - we decided to settle into a patch of shade and let the afternoon take its course ...

we had accessed the beach on foot via a large white gate allowing access only to pedestrians and followed by a sign I can only describe as 'ominous' - referring to an 'eco friendly development' soon to be underway ...?

surely this could not be true - we were sitting marveling at how spectacular and untouched the bay appeared - one of the few coastal areas along the great barrier reef not sacrificed to development -  backing onto world heritage rainforest - does none of this factor in when such projects [however 'eco friendly'] are approved ...? 

this evening I sat and googled in an attempt to try to find out more about this development: I have found a fantastic blog on the natural wonders of ella bay - ella bay forever  and I found a site established by those behind the proposed development  - ella bay - an integrated master plan community  - you may need a strong cup of tea when reading through that one... 

from our observations it looked as though there was little going on with the actual development - although there are plenty of signs telling you where you may and may not walk - so we did not actually see anything resembling a development site...  I am hoping more information will soon come to light about the current fate/state of this special gem ... stay tuned ...












and heading back home ... 
this lovely light show from second beach ... 



8.8.11

in the wake ...

Nancy Wake in 2004 [image source]



fare-thee-well nancy

in the image above 
you were past your ninetieth year
and yet 
how vital - how keen - how confident 
those eyes
o - the beauty 
of a life lived unafraid 
 of a face
granted permission 
to age - with grace

may your capacity to live - and give life
inspire a spark in us all
who hope to follow 

in your wake

...

1.8.11

the fleeting moment ...








'The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough...'  
[Rabindranath Tagore]


ah ... as the butterfly
so too the flower ...

and for both 
in death 
such delicate capitulation 
colours that so subtly fade
as if not to tear our hearts too soon 
with their absence 

echoing life
their soft open forms
a silent supplication 
 poised 
with such grace
in the place
between two worlds 


as the butterfly
so too the flower ...

so may we ... 
tenderly 
welcome the infinite
be our moments many or few

...