Pursuit Of Spark

Cool steady rain. The false sunflowers are beginning to bloom, a pop of color on a gray day.

So hot and steamy, even the bees moved slowly.

Global Tea Hut's new tea is best, they write, steeped right in the bowl. The tiny green leaves were tender enough to eat.

Sometimes you can find the whole world reflected in a bowl of tea.

Raindrops clung to the leaves and workers raised ladders in a nearby yard as I sipped vivid green Gyokuro tea.

Early tea, low sun filtering through the leaves, a lovely play of light and shadow.

Amber houjicha tea in a blue bowl with glorious hydrangea blooms in my vase.

Cut hydrangea and lavender for my tea tray, which attracted a visitor.

Blue jay fledglings, just a few weeks old, are already learning to fly by flitting tentatively from branch to branch of the dogwood tree.

Green tea and red and blue berries.

Liu An tea from Global Tea Hut woke us up. In the garden, the summer colors are emerging.

As I sipped my puerh tea this morning, I thought about what tea master Wu De, of www.globalteahut.org, told us yesterday, that what matters is where a tea grows -- "Mountain, garden, tree."

Savored deep green Konacha tea while the robins and squirrels ate bright red serviceberries.

The patio stones were cool underfoot, the tea was hot in our cups, and the robins and mockingbirds feasted on ripe serviceberries as we sipped our tea.

Slender tea leaves danced in hot water while a robin gorged itself on ripe serviceberries.

The oakleaf hydrangea languished in the shade until we moved them two summers ago. In the sun they are thriving, their blooms opening like little stars.

Light rain sent us to the back corner of the garden, for tea under a canopy of maples listening to the growl and hum of a neighbor's lawnmower.

Green tea, purple flowers, and white butterflies on this spring afternoon.

The red tea opened my eyes to the little things that loomed large in the garden.

The simple pleasure of new red tea in a blue cup, looking at white blossoms and listening to the birds.