Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
Ms. Misako Miyahara from the Urasenke Chanoyu in New York City leads the workshop Day Two of the tea workshop bolstered my confidence by beginning with a compliment. The organizer told me privately that Miyahara-Sensei had complimented my tea style (complete omission of procedure notwithstanding). We can reasonably conclude she was just being polite, so…please avoid being reasonable. Again,…
There’s nothing very frightening about tea time…is there? Life today at home with the Captain. Tea Ceremony workshop this weekend at the University of West Florida! I am all over that! I am lucky to be able to stay home with Captain Goodbaby in this season of life. This spring I enjoyed a tea ceremony demonstration at…
We drive past crop fields to get anywhere. We moved into our house in January, when the empty ground stretching away from the road was hard and dark, scattered with sticks and dead leaves. Neat rows of green appeared in the spring. Dark, broad leaves stretched high and wide come summer, and we guessed maybe…
Silk lanterns in Hoi An, Vietnam, 2011 Chris had one of my favorite ideas ever early last year as we were wandering the streets of Hoi An, Vietnam. We’d admired myriad gorgeous Vietnamese lanterns from Saigon to Hanoi, but what would anyone do with them back home? Chris suggested consolidating our suitcases and filling the…
Pounce got me a big hairy brown recluse for my birthday. And 20 bucks. I heard him purring and pouncing near the office bookcases and scooped his prize into a baggie to investigate. “Is that a brown recluse?” Chris asked. “It’s probably a Florida house spider like that other big spider,” I guessed. Chris was…
Two bamboo Awa Odori figures danced around the late summer arrangement in the living room. As the heat of summer fades, I find myself thinking about glowing lanterns swinging over streets crowded with festival food stalls and families in yukata. A salaryman in one of my English classes found the tiny dancers when he visited…
All is calm on the Blackwater River. “The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.” ~Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness “I had a nice time,” I said, driving…
