Teatails: Choises
Teatails: Ready for storage
Teatails: Koicha
Last bowl of 2015
I wish you all a happy new year! I enjoyed this year´s last bowl of tea with my wife by candlelight. 2015 was the very first year I had the opportunity to do temae every single day, lets hope 2016 offers the same opportunity.
Teatails: Getting it just right
Koicha
Teatails: A promise of Tea
Valentine’s Day
Usually I’m not a great fan of the comerzialised American traditions that seems to grow in popularity in Norway. My wife on the other hand loves both Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day. We have had Thanksgivin parties most years, but hardly any Valentine’s celebration. In the beginning my company always had a skiing trip around Valentine’s Day so I was never home.
This year I surprised my wife with a single rose and a light sprinkle of rosepetals in tokonoma for our morning Tea. Normally roses are considered inproper for Tea because of the thorns. For this occasion I made an exception, and I also removed the thorns. Also she got a sweet instead of the bread she usually have in the morning.
I hope you all have a good Valentine’s Day and that there is someone speciall in your life that you can share it with. Maybe next year we can do it the Japanese way, I much prefer that 😛
Morning Wife
I very recently changed jobs. As I had been in my previous job for a long time and it was step up for me, I felt it was a big deal. So I wanted to commemorate it. To do that, I got my self a new tea bowl. It’s a antique bowl that I bought from a collector in USA. Maybe I’ll tell you more about it in the future, but for now it is a “secret” to be discovered by guests one seki at the time.I planned on using it for the very first time for morning tea before my first day in the new job. Being very supportive, my non-tea-drinking-wife decided that she would participate on this morning gathering, even though she neither enjoys sitting in the tea room nor the taste of the tea. In advance we had several practice sessions so that she would know what to do, and just as importantly not mistreat my tea bowl ;)On the morning of my first day in the new job, we had a wonderful and quiet tea gathering from 06:25 to 06:52. Those that know my wife will say that it is a bit of a sensation that she was up and about at that time of day. What was even more sensational was the text message I got from her a few hours later:
My morning was EXCEPTIONALLY much better than usual! I’m considering joining you for tea tomorrow too…:O
Maybe starting the day with koicha will make your morning better too. If you do try, please tell me about it in the comment field
Hatsugama photos
5th of January I held Hatsugama, the first kettle of tea. I had invited five friends, but unfortunately two was unable to attend due to some emergency overtime at their company. A small meal was served first, then koicha. I enjoyed the event, and hope that the guest did too.
These are some photos from the event. Unfortunately I forgot to sneak a photo of the guests.
