Tea in the time of snowdrops

There are two occasions in the year – a big deal in the church calendar – that I cannot, will not attend.

One is Remembrance Sunday – when we, who out of our taxes pay for our government to bomb Aleppo to dust and provoke the Soviet Union to war and sell weapons to ruin the lives of people in Yemen, meet to pray for peace and reminisce about World Wars I and II and the Nazis, “that it may never happen again”. To us.

I don’t go.

The second one is Ash Wednesday, when the people file up to have the priest mark their foreheads with ash, saying, “You are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Now, I know well that this is not only a Bible quote but that God said it, so that should make it extra holy and acceptable to me.

But, look – it’s from the curse of Adam.

We live under a new dispensation now. The whole point of Jesus coming, a second Adam, was to heal us and so we could be filled with the Holy Spirit.

If anyone tried to ash my forehead, they’d get as far as “You are dust – ” and I’d have to interrupt. No, I’m not. I am Spirit. I am the property of Jesus Christ, and to him I shall return. I am made of the Light and I came from the Light and to the Light I shall return. That’s just the way it is, and they can keep the curse of Adam because I do not want it and it has no place in my life.

So I don’t go to church on Ash Wednesday because I don’t even want to think about it.

But aside from that, I wanted to show you my cup of tea from breakfast time, because I thought it looked so pretty. Sorry about the dun-coloured formica table top – that’s just where it was.

The cup is Judith Rowe’s beautiful pottery, just the right size, with snowdrops on - and there are snowdrops now in the garden. And the pale green tea, perfect in the pale green cup, is rosemary tea.

I love it that the herbs do all year round for tea – in the winter garden we have sage and rosemary, perfect for winter teas; in the summer garden there are lemon balm (Melissa) and lemon verbena and different kinds of mint, light and refreshing.

Considering the price of tea, and all the packaging of printed cardboard and foil bags, not to mention teabags, garden herbs seem like the way to go. Entirely free – you can even grow them from roots or cuttings from a friend, so easy, you don’t even have to buy the plant – and no packaging at all. Plus they fulfill the Ayurvedic criterion of being less than two hours from picking to eating.