I love the fall weather highlighted with the call of the raucous black birds and the melancholy hoot of the owl usurping the cuckoo to announce the end of day. My mornings of breakfasting in the apiary are dwindling so to enjoy this fall day I have brewed a pot of black tea called Rompope, a flavored black tea from the Tea Merchant in Wichita, KS. This tea goes well with milk and sugar so I was able to use my fall themed creamer and sugar bowls. My cup and saucer also reflect the season with a pattern called “August Poppy”.
Building a Sleeping Cottage near our pond has been my Covid-19 project. I like to camp out and listen to the night life, but setting up a tent and taking it down when it rains is a pain so I wanted a permanent sleeping place.
The structure was originally our two daughter’s playhouse, but at 4 x 5 feet inside, it was too small to house a bed. After my husband moved the original playhouse to our pond for me, I added 4 feet to the back with the end wall being a 4 x 4 foot window we happened to have stored in our barn. I like to use building items we have on hand. The shingles were also left over from when we built our house.
I named the cottage “Robin’s Nest” as I have decorated it with my bird collection.
I made the couch/bed cushions from a queen size memory foam mattress that I cut into the correct sizes. The couch pulls out for a full size bed. Totes under the bed hold the bed linens.
I modeled the couch/bed wood slat frame from one I first saw on U-tube for a van conversion. The frame stays folded for the sofa and then pulls out for the full size bed. Since I did not want the couch back to go past the side window, I made a “flipper” end to add another 12 inches to the end of the bed.
When the bed is pulled out, it takes up most of the space in the cottage. The first picture is taken from the door and the second picture is taken from the south window.
This perspective is from the mini loft area with a different bedspread
The ambient lighting is from a handmade solar chandelier. I used a solar light string and a metal wall sconce then added various bead babbles.
At nightfall, the soft lighting gives the cottage a certain fairy enchantment.
The south wall sports a wooden window sash. The waterfall picture I took at the Missouri Botanical Gardens and I added in front a picture of my departed kitty, JJ, looking in the window. He liked to climb on our house roof and look in my bedroom window wanting me to let him in.
The purpose for the false window is to fold down and make a small table for the cottage.
I recently christened the cottage with a tea party, serving a Magnolia Oolong that is one of my favorites with its floral bouquet.
There is a broom closet and another little cabinet in the cottage that fit within the uninsulated wall cavities.
The tiny loft is above the front porch. The front entrance is a child sized door so an adult must duck through but there is plenty of headspace once inside.
My decorating is still ongoing but some of the details now include a clock made from a tree knot-hole. And of course a birds nest.
I have an old fashioned latch which was originally on the door of my childhood playhouse. Strangely, my playhouse was fashioned from the top of an old outhouse that had been cut down to size above the sitting holes.
I started a mini cottage garden outside with a trellis that should be covered with vine by the end of summer. I plan to use the rocks to make a courtyard in front of the cottage and a few trees are in the plans for next spring.
This rainy spring day needed some brightening up and some Lavender Scones were what was needed and, of course, they are the perfect accompaniment for a cup of tea. This batch was from the book by Nancy Baggett, The Art of Cooking with Lavender.
My new thrift-found tea cup and saucer sported this verse. “The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy” Psalms 126:3 Oh, and I guess my tea pot also had a verse today from Phillipians 4:8 “What every is lovely, think on these things”.
Happy Mother’s Day! Here is a special cup of tea for all mothers, Blue Jasmine tea. A limited available tea from The London Tea Room. It is a green tea scented with Jasmine and the addition of Blue Pea Flowers for the blue color. The color changes in the presence of an acid like lemon juice. (And it makes a great pH indicator in a pinch for a 5th grade science experiment.)
The spring birds are singing and one of my teapots chirped to me this morning to use it to brew a pot of Osmanthus Oolong tea.
The pot is from the studio of Kyle and Angie White at “The Barn” in Gruene, Texas. (http://www.TheBarnInGruene.com) I love hand thrown pottery and this teapot is a piece of art with its “carved” design and unique glazing.
The teapot delighted me by steeping a slightly “green” oolong tea. Oolong tea is from the same tea plant (Camellia sinensis) as green and black teas but whereas black tea is fully oxidized during its processing and green tea is not oxidized, oolong tea can range from anywhere in between. This oolong slides towards the green/grassy, less oxidized range in taste. It is also a delight because it has been scented with Osmanthus flowers, giving it a nice floral scent and spring to the tongue.
1 teaspoon of oolong tea unfurls into a full nest of tea leaves
The striking green hue of the whole leaf tea, Matcha always reminds me of the shamrock. Although it may not cure COVID-19, what better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than with a cup of matcha?
Matcha is a true tea from the Camilla sinensis plant that is shade-grown, inducing a higher chlorophyll content giving it the rich green color. The leaves for matcha are only hand harvested in spring from the bud and first three leaves. This short harvest window is one of the reasons it can be so expensive.
After drying, the leaves are stone ground into a powder. The whole leaf is consumed by being whisked into hot water until frothy, not steep as with traditional tea. Matcha has a much more vegetal palate but its bold taste pairs well with foods and other beverages.
A novel way to enjoy match is as a shamrock atop a classy dessert of chocolate chip mint ice cream and whipped topping.
Scaptotrigona pectoralis bee make an extended entrance to their hive nest from wax and plant resin. Guard bees stand ready to defend the hive but are stingless. They use their powerful jaws to bite intruders.
On a recent trip to the Caribbean, I was able to visit the Mayan Bee Sanctuary on Cozumel island, Mexico. Here we were able to see two of the 16 different kinds of stingless bees, in the Yucatan Peninsula. The Scaptotrigona pectoralis and the Melipona beecheeii. These bees are smaller (about the size of a fly) than the European bee (Apis mellifera).
The bees locate their nest in tree trunks, which the local people cut into a log called a Hobone, just as their Mayan ancestors once did. The ends of the cut log are sealed with leaves, mud and wax and the hobones are placed under cover to protect them from the weather, animals and other insects.
Right: Melipona beecheeii hobones under cover
The stingless bees store their honey in “Honey Pots” and only produce about a liter of honey per year which is significantly lower than the Apis melliferra. The honey is used more for medicinal purposes than culinary. The price of this honey at the tourist shop was about $10 per ounce.
Honey Pots
We were able to taste the Melipona beecheeii honey and compare it to the honey produced by A. mellifera. The beecheeii honey was thinner and with a slight citrus taste. We also were able to taste the bee’s pollen and propolis. The pollen was not as sweet as the pollen I get from my A. mellifera bees.
Melipona beecheeii have a single guard that stands in the hive entrance and will move aside when a another bee enters or exits. The Mayan name is xunan kab meaning Regal Lady Bee. The Mayan protector god of the bees was Ah Musen Cab.
What is a cup plate? During the early nineteenth century, hot tea was served in handleless cups. The tea was poured into a deep saucer to cool, and one then drank from the saucer. The cup was placed on a small cup plate to prevent the staining of furniture and linens.
The word saucer is used for the dish used beneath a tea cup but at one time it actually was used for sauces. The saucer above on the left is an example of a deep dish saucer, it does not have the cup ring in the center. Later, a cup ring was added to saucers to hold the cup in the center of the dish. On the right is the tea cup saucer that we are used to seeing today with the center ring.
In 1982, Kaleidoscope, Inc. presented a series of thirteen Nursery Rhyme cup plates hand pressed by The Fenton Art Glass Company of Williamstown, West Virginia. The literature accompanying the cup plates state they were “a limited edition of 15,000 plates and that second quality plates and the moulds were destroyed after production. Each cup plate features both the Fenton “Oval” and the Kaleidoscope, Inc. “Star” trademarks.”
Each boxed cup plate includes a card, giving a brief history of the nursery rhyme represented on the plate. I was presented with two of the plates by my dear friend Melissa. They represent “Jack and Jill’ in teal colored glass and “Humpty Dumpty” in Lollipop yellow. They are perfect escorts for my porcelain Teavana teapot and handleless cups.
The name of our blooming tea for October is called Orange. Maybe not the flavor of the month, but definitely the color. It coordinates beautifully with the pumpkins and fall foliage.
This is my bon-voyage tea for this morning as we are headed for Peru to visit our daughter, Katelynn. She is volunteering at Seeds of Hope-Peru as the coordinator of the other international and local volunteers who come to work with under privileged children in Huaraz.
Besides seeing the awesome landscape at 10,000 feet, I am hoping to find some Peruvian tea and local bee keepers on this trip as well.
Robin Bee Tea 