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Translated a Zeesen Pesach means "a Sweet Passover" in Yiddish.
If you look over at the left hand column, you will see the words "A Zeesen Pesach" and a picture of a seder plate. If you click on the plate you will see pictures of our Passover Seder. Click the first on and you can see all of them full-sized from there.
Enjoy...
I wish you all a Zeesen Pesach.
I wish you all a Sweet Life...
Millerton is a charming town with painted buildings, antique shops and a "smoke shop" that also sells old-fashioned penny candy, cold drinks and flannel shirts. It's just across the state line from Litchfield County, CT to Duchess County, NY. It's also home to the Harney & Sons (Master Blenders) Tea Company. It has a lovely store, and a delightful restaurant, albeit with a limited but delicious menu--and with some of the best tea scones I have ever tasted.
But, by far, the attraction that makes the trip worthwhile is the tasting room and the young man that presides over it. Hillel, cheerful, charming, and with a superior knowledge of tea, will make your trip through the maze of teas entertaining as well as enlightening.
All tea comes from the "Camellia sinesis," an evergreen shrub that can grow up to 60 feet tall in the wild. Tea plantations prune them to a height of about three feet for ease of harvesting--as only the top two leaves and the bud are picked--by hand. The leaves are then processed by different drying methods to create the four different type of tea: black, green, Oolong, and white.
Harney & Sons boasts over 150 varieties of tea. And they will brew a small cup of anything on the wall to help you select your favorite. Tea is sprinkled onto the lid of a two pound can for sight and smell and then a small spoon of it is place in a cup to brew (timed with a timer) the perfect cup of that particular kind of tea. We tried black teas and green, flavored and white, all of them delicious. My favorite morning tea is there Black Current, and for decaf tea Midsummer Peach has no equal.
Their Indian Spice tastes more like the tea I had in India than the American Chai Tea that pretends to it. Although green tea is not a favorite of mine, I couldn't resist tasting the one named Dragon Pearl. It was good enough to bring home a small 2 oz tasting package.
On the weekends, it gets so busy they ask you to confine your choices to two plus the one on the counter but we were lucky to be there on a weekday and were treated to a plethora of tea pleasures.
We walked around town peeking in store windows and combing through the treasures in thrift/antique stores and considered where to have lunch. In the end, we chose to go back to Harney's and try their sandwiches and scones. The smoked salmon on my field greens salad was wonderful and the Mulligatawny soup was grand!
Totally saited, we headed home with our tea treasures.
Thanks to Tracy and Deb who made it the perfect girls day out!
If you decide to go to Millerton be sure to take Route 22 so that you can see the rock frog...
And when you get home... make yourself a nice cup of tea!
Spring has arrived in Litchfield. It took some time getting here but it has finally arrived. I opened the backdoor and there they were in my Buddha garden right off the kitchen – bright yellow and looking as cheerful as a kid with a brand new box of crayons.
By the way - that's a two-headed daffodil. I've never seen two daffodil heads on the same stalk before. Do you think they are as lucky as four leaf clovers? 
Even at the nature preserve the first buds were up. I know Laura and her dad, Drew are going to know what this is—and if you would be so kind as to leave it in the comments everyone else will, too! I only know that it’s the first signs of spring that I see every year in White’s Woods.
And lest you think that the rest of my two-mile walk around the loop of Little Pond was without beauty check out this sky! It was a warm breeze and the air smelled so good!
It was wonderful to breathe in Spring.
And, since they take so long to get here and seem shorter every year--I'm going to take time to enjoy this one!
"Spring is nature's way of saying, Let's party!" ~Robin Williams
Or for the more erudite...
"One impluse from a vernal wood may teach you more of man of moral evil and of good than all the sages can." ~W. Wordsworth
Do you know what steampunk is? I didn’t and I write it.
Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy fiction which is set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, often set in Victorian era England—but with fictional technological inventions (like a computer) occurring at an earlier date or appearing through time travel. Think HG Wells and Jules Verne.
In November of 2006, I wrote a novel (50,000 words of one but it might grow up and be a proper novel someday) about a woman who time travels back to Victorian England to solve the disappearance of her aunt. The aunt’s house just happens to have a computer and a butler—both of which seem to have beenaround for over a hundred years—both, albeit politely, run the place with the aid of some advanced technology.
It was grand fun to write. And although I wish NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) would move from November to March when there seems to be more need of diversion…I recommend it to anyone who thinks they might have a novel in them.
Back to Steampunk. Mixed media assemblage artist Michael deMeng, a favorite blog stop of mine, had the definition of steampunk and some pictures of steampunk computer keyboards on his site. It blew me away! So check these out and enjoy!
Industrial keyboard from Richard R. Nagy better known as Datamancer.
My next laptop. Love the key! ~a better look here~ This guy is amazing!
The desk top model...
So there you go. Check out his website and enjoy!
I love red tulips.
I used to love red roses but I have seen the light. Red roses come with powerful emotions; they say something, they might even demand something, they have potential, they extract promises and they live in the future.
If you have ever been given a bouquet of roses by someone you do not feel the same way about you will know how heavily they can weigh. And the cost…no meager sum nowadays.
Tulips are within almost any budget and can be scooped up out of the supermarket containers as easily as bread and milk. Available and inexpensive, they are perfect for the spontaneous expression of shared joy.
Red roses mark occasions. Red tulips live right here in the now. They are cheerful. They make no demands and they say “I love you just as you are.”
And who couldn’t use a little unconditional love…
And by the way while we are on the topic of red and tulips, here's a lady that taught me how to appreciate both. Take a bow Linda.
Linda is standing in Renaissance Cafe in Huntington, NY one of my favorite places to eat. Renaissance is a restaurant, a deli, a gourmet food store and a trip to Italy (Long Island style).
You can hear the opera, Andrea Bucelli, and other Italian playing in the background. The decor is Italian villa vs. jumble sale but it works for me.
Besides it may be the only place where you can order one egg over easy, with six perfect strawberries, two slices of smoked salmon, and home-made whole grain toast done cheerfully to your specifications. They also have great coffee!
They also serve lunch and dinner and when I was single and working nearby I once had eleven of my 21 weekly meals there without a repeat - with the possible exception of the curried chicken salad which is very, very good.
AND they almost always have red tulips...
