It's Tea Time!

This blog is about my favorite things.

Tea has always been my favorite beverage--well, aside from that crazy couple of years dedicated to double espresso lattes twice a day. That was then.

This is now.

Tea is comfort. Tea is refinement. Tea is global. Flavorful, elegant. Tea is always good.

My favourite naturalist (is it weird that I have one?) is, of course, Sir David Attenborough. As young children, my siblings and I were limited to PBS for our televisual pleasure. Every night we watched Wild America with Marty Stouffer, and we were only allowed to stay up late to watch Nova specials. At the time, we thought our parents were crazy, but in retrospect, I can see the value of toning down the constant violence of the Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which is not to say that I didn't watch those shows and love them), and replacing that with educational television.

Thanks mom and dad.

Anyway, I didn't really begin to appreciate Sir David Attenborough until I took home a DVD from the library a few years ago, The Blue Planet.

Oh. Good. Christ. In. Heaven.

I watched it over and over again, and then I went back for the next episodes and watched them over and over again. I couldn't get over the artistic filming, the majestic music, and, of course, the information. I'd given up on nature films for a long time--since I'd had so much of it as a child, nothing surprised me or taught me anything anymore.

But it wasn't only the research, and the newness of the information, it was the presentation. Sir Attenborough has a true appreciation for the intricacies of the lives of animals and plants. He is as in awe of them as I am.

From Blue Planet I went to Planet Earth, and then into the more detailed series, like Life in the Undergrowth. Each was stunning, both visually and mentally. I was hooked. 

And my last favorite thing, as anyone who knows me will tell you, is cooking. I did not grow up a cook. Some kids have parents that love to teach them to cook, but my father was a sort of control freak genius in the kitchen, so my sister and I were confined to making cakes out of boxes. Fast forward to age 18, when I went vegan.

Uh-oh. Suddenly quesadillas and chicken fingers, my staples, were off the menu, and I couldn't live on tomato soup and Oreos forever. Believe me, I tried. So, it was time to take control--I had to learn how to cook.

How on Planet Earth am I going to tie this all together? By hosting tea parties with my friends and watching Sir David Attenborough (hereafter SDA) hosted programmes, of course!