Monday, February 28, 2011

March: Cosy and Green

11-01-25-08-36-14H  Where I live, March is the dampest, drizzliest, grayest month of the year.  You are just so tired of winter when March comes, and the days just drip on…

The only antidote to dripping days is TEA!   Wonderful warm comforting, cosy tea.  (The dictionary said I could spell it either way, with a z or an s, and I choose “s”).  As a matter of fact, the dictionary has been most illuminating on this subject.

As I was researching the correct spelling of tea cosy/cozy/cosies, I found a curious inconsistency.  After T.E.A., I found “tea bag, tea ball, tea biscuit, tea cart”, and then a few entries off my subject of the moment  on the subject of teaching, and then, back to my subject, “tea cup, teacupful, tea dance, tea house, tea kettle, tea party, tea pot, tea room, tea service, tea spoon, tea table, tea time, tea tray, tea wagon”.  But where was the tea cosy, that most basic and useful British accessory?  Whoever heard of a tea room without Brown Betty teapots covered with little knit or crocheted caps?   So I dug deeper.  Could they have stuck my meaning away in the generic “cosy”, completely ignoring the tea connection?

Yes, and No. Under “cosy” the dictionary says “same as cozy” (I don’t quite agree).  Under “cozy”, the meaning comes from the Scots to the Scandinavian meaning  “to make oneself comfortable, koselig, snug, warm, and comfortable”. TEA! That’s what I’m talkin’ about.  You don’t get that kind of cosy without a cup of tea.

As a noun, the meaning is “a knitted or padded cover placed over a teapot to keep the contents hot.”  By it’s very definition tea cosy should be alphabetized with the tea words.  Tea cosies are much more essential to tea and comfort than  tea cart, tea party, tea service, tea dance, don’t you think?    Webster should have known that with his English roots. 

I have digressed from my point, which is that there is nothing as wonderfully comforting , snuggly, or warming as a cup of tea on a March dripping day.  Unless it’s two cups of tea, in which case you need a cosy to keep your second cup warm while you are sipping your first one.

So at last I introduce you to my new Tea Cosy, given to me by my friend Patti for Christmas.  As you can see it is mossy green, making it all the more perfect for this timely March subject.   

Patti  lives in Arizona now where they probably only drink iced tea, but she used to be an Oregon girl so she knows about damp.  And she was a traveler so she knows about how good it feels to come home to your own brewed cup.  And how wonderful it is to wake up on a foggy morning and stumble to the kitchen to put the kettle on and then sit in a cozy chair with your mug of tea until you can move to face the day.  She gets it! 

And so, Patti made me this cosy while they were on an extended road trip last summer, bumping along from one backroad to another across the country.  She bought the yarn in Leadville, Colorado.  It is worsted woolen, “Heather”.  The pattern she used is from “One Skein Wonders; 101 Yarn Shop Favorites”, edited by Judith Durant.  I just love it.  I love the heather-y yarn, the mossy green, and I really love the stitch variety. 11-01-25-08-36-32H 11-01-25-08-35-42H The top part seems flat knit with darts overlaid on itself (but it isn’t, it’s knit in) and the mid section is a lacier stitch banded at the bottom.

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Isn’t the little top-knot cute?  Love it!

Patti mentioned that it could serve alternately as a hat for a girl with pigtails.  I tried it and though it was wonderfully soft, my ears weren’t big enough to do it justice.  The spout and handle show off this cosy  to much better advantage.

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I would also like to say that there is nothing more cosy than a good friend in this world.  Thank you, Patti!

 

Sunday, February 27, 2011

HANDS

I was very happy last week to hear that the photo theme at Rebecca’s this week was to be “Hands”.  There is a new little pair of hands in my world and they have worked their way ‘round my heart completely.  I just happen to have some pictures to show you!

11-01-17-11-10-09H I think Noah has exceptionally long and beautiful fingers.  They are so expressive!  His fingertips tilt back and arch as though he is directing music or planning a painting.  They are usually in motion and thus difficult to get a focused picture of.

11-01-29-14-37-23H This photo I was planning to share for the “stripes” theme week, but the time got away from me.11-01-29-14-38-18H

The following pictures are from the very special occasion when my daughter took her new child to meet her Granny, my Mother.  I took these pictures of their touching across the generations, and in fact, across the continents since Daughter and Baby were leaving for their home in Africa in just a few days’ time. 

My Mother will be 90 next month, and her hands once so supple and strong and attractive now have skin so thin that it tears easily.  I wish I could have ‘photo-shopped out’ the purple blotch of her wound where that latest tear is healing slowly.  I wish I could Photoshop out a lot of the indignities of her aging. 

Nevertheless, there is new, young, soft, plump skin that has a rejuvenating and joyful quality to it.  I am so glad we 4 generations had a little time to be together!  What a gift, to introduce my first grandchild to my mom.  And what a precious moment for my daughter to bring her new son to present him to her Granny.  I feel the world rejoicing around me!

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A phrase that has lodged in my mind as I have been thinking about hands is a line from Rachel Field’s book, Prayer for a Child:

Bless the hands that never tire in their loving care of me”

As a matter of fact, that book was given to our daughter, the new Momma, when she was born.  As I have watched her over the past two months I have seen her delicate, little girl hands grown into a Mother’s hands moving tirelessly to change a diaper, clothe and re-clothe a wiggly baby, nurse and swaddle and rock.  Her hands even through sleepless nights have not tired in their loving care of her baby.  Somehow that makes me appreciate my Mom all the more.

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“All the works of Your hands give praise to You, Oh Lord.” Psalm 145:10

For more photo entries, go to Rebecca’s at Renaissance:

http://zeahrenaissance.blogspot.com/2011/02/foto-friday_25.html

Foto Friday Challenge