Friday, March 20, 2015

Happy First Day of Spring and Tea Stories from Lucknow!

Happy First Day of Spring people :) Its raining in my neck of the woods and a bit chilly but hey its still spring....so says the calender :) Sharing my cup of tea above and a sneak peek into whats going to be my big birthday giveaway :) Can you guess ???



Since its springtime I am transporting you to Lucknow, India where we are invited for chai to Reshma's pretty home. I have blogged about Reshma before on MDC. She is a lovely person, a fabulous virtual friend, she is incredibly artistic and blogs at Dreams are Made of These. 

Take it away Reshma.....

"Hello all ! I'm Reshma . Warm greetings to you from India ( Lucknow) to be precise) I come from a country where 80% of people believe that tea , or chai. It is the axis around which our entire social life revolves. No event, gathering or visit is complete if you don't offer chai.  I would love to believe that there is no greater chai lover on this planet than me ( but then, most of us believe that ) and my husband often tells people that they can get anything out from me ( in terms of gossip) over a cup of tea. Sigh !! Well, I stand guilty :) There are many ways of having tea. A lot goes in it's preparation and presentation. However, the long leafed Darjeeling variety that is served 'oh-so-correctly' in a tea pot with matching napkins and hot scones on the side is the one preparation that I keep aside for formal gatherings. I prefer my everyday tea to be of a nice , brown-orange robust color, boiled to perfection which is a far cry from it's distant cousin Darjeeling tea .My tea isn't complete if I don't add an adequate quantity of adrak ( ginger), throw in a few leaves of tulsi ( holy basil) and of late I have started adding just a small stick of cinnamon  too just to give it a spicy taste as well as a great fragrance. You won't need aroma therapy after that for sure :)
These days, at our end, Spring is knocking on the door, ready to barge in anytime so in an attempt to erase the lines between indoors and outdoors, I have started taking my hot cuppa outdoors along with some hot munchies. Just the place I want to be in to put up my feet, hear the birds chirping,watch the flowers blooming, the bees and butterflies flitting around laboriously, pick up that book and take a sip of heaven. "


Sigh, I told you that she will transport you to a magical place :) Now here are some of the pictures of those delightful tea moments!








Thank you Reshma for inviting us for tea. Happy Friday people and keep on smiling :)


Images: Reshma Sharma and subject to copyright.

2 comments:

Aalayam Inspiration said...

reshma sure has a green thumb! look at all that luscious greenery! wish she would teach me how :(

yet another lovely tea time post!

~deepa

Unknown said...

Thanks for having me here Anu :) It's always a pleasure to share this space with you :)

Deepa, thank you :) No green thumb at all . Just a culmination of trials and errors here and there in the garden over the years . Thankfully, I have started to understand plants a little better now ;) Thanks for the appreciation !

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