It's about that time again, Readers.

The time to jovially run amok the city in glitter and sparkles and bang on drums and cymbals to welcome in the New Year. My costume is nearly finished - the mask is practically all I have left. Also possibly the most important part of this costume....

Happy New Year, World.

Remember - we're all stuck on this planet together, let's try to make the best of it, eh?

Dearest Readers, Collaborators of Life and Fellow Human Beings!

It has snowed.

Not too much, thank goodness. But enough.

Enough to let the silence be loud enough to notice.
Enough that the trees had a layer on their naked branches.
Enough to make snowballs.
Enough for my four delightful canines to run around in.

 My favourite part is the silence. How all of a sudden, the world stops a little bit. It's quiet. I can hear myself. It's delightful.

In Daydreams,
Her Grace

Dear Readers (far and wide, whomever you may be!),


Contemplating the life as a baker, Her Grace realises that most portrayals of the Baking Life in popular culture is rather inaccurate. Here are just a few realities to the unrealities:

Unreality: The baker looks well rested and rises every morning just before dawn to start the new day.
Reality: The baker is awake, usually after only a few hours of sleep, several hours before dawn to begin all prep work that needs to be done prior to baking, or, the prep work that the baker was too exhausted to do before he went to bed. Sometimes, he does everything before he gets to bed, causing a late bedtime anyway.
Unreality: The baker eats everything he bakes and doesn't get sick of his product.
Reality: The baker relishes in the thought of eating something other than what he is baking.
Unreality: The baker looks amazing every day as he/she bakes. (Kind of like Maggie Gyllenhaal's character in "Stranger Than Fiction")
Reality: Sometimes, yes. Usually, absolutely not.
Unreality: Baking is an easy, fun, satisfying career.
Reality: Baking is a hard-on-your-body, not-always-fun, satisfying-but-you-don't-always-feel-like-it lifestyle.

Sometimes, you get along with your product. Sometimes, you want to throw it all away and never have to look at another one ever again.
Usually, you enjoy eating the loaf of bread you just made. Usually, you will also be craving something not containing starch, carbohydrates, gluten or anything related to it.

So, before you might decide to become a baker, remember these things:

1. It's very hard on you physically; apart from having to lift 50lb bags of flour, sugar etc, you will be standing on your feet for very long periods of time. Your feet will be tired, your legs will be tired, your back will hurt.
2. You don't usually get much sleep; you must learn to adjust. Caffeine is also helpful.
3. If you are a hobby baker (which is lovely!); apprentice with a baker before you dive completely in by yourself. You want to see if you actually want to do it.
4. From all the pain, exhaustion and the seemingly endless list of things that need to be done, you are going to be grumpy. The other people around working with you are going to be grumpy. Tempers will flare and yelling matches will undoubtedly happen. Remember to keep your temper.
5. Bread particularly; It owns you. You are a slave to the bread dough. Everything revolves around its chemistry, your awake time, your sleep time... It take approximately 23 hours from start to finish for a good loaf of Italian bread.

The best things about being a bread baker:

1. The glee of meeting fellow foodies. When you love something, like bread, you want to share that love with everyone you meet. 
2. The sunrises. Truly. Even though you're exhausted and rather be in bed, sunrises are the worth it.
3. The smell of basic Italian bread. No matter how not hungry you are, that scent never stops smelling heavenly.
4. Watching people love your cookies.
5. The fact that it's not a career - it's a lifestyle. Everything you do revolves around the dough, the cookie schedule, the pies, the cakes... It's slower, because it has to be.
6. The fun of creating something new.

 So, to those who love to bake: Don't believe the picture when it comes to a baker in popular culture. Go out and meet bakers. They love what they do, but it isn't easy. Go out and eat!

Cheers!
Her Grace

Happy Halloween, World!

 Stay Safe.

word of the day: rain

They call it a Bucket List, but I think it's more like a List of Things To Do.

These include:

1. Session/Pub hopping in Ireland
2. Pilgrimage to Mount Sunday in New Zealand
3. Work at WETA Workshop in New Zealand
4. Learn to Surf
5. Learn to Sail
6. Play the uilleann pipes
7. Finish my graphic novel!
8. Watch the sunrise from the most Eastern point of the world
9. Learn to speak fluent French, German, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Italian and Elvish
10. Run amok in the entirety of the UK pretending to be a faery
11. Sit on a beach in Morocco and drink mint tea
12. Actually talk like a pirate on International Talk Like A Pirate Day (19 September!)
13. Patch, splint and help as many people as I will medically be able to do
14. Travel on horseback across the country
15. Meet Monty Python, thank them and give them all hugs
16. Learn the trades of plumbling, electric work and masonry
17. Learn how to talk to a car
18. Learn how to reason with a car
19. Pick olives from an olive tree
20. Grow rosemary, jasmine, bergamot and almonds for a living
21. Spend the night in a barn just to wake up and smell like hay and horses
22. Wake up at midnight on the Summer Solstice, spend the whole day enjoying the amount of sunshine and don't go to sleep until midnight again

That's part of what Her Grace would like to do and accomplish in the world. What about you? Have you thought on it too much? Have you not paid any attention to it at all? You're never too old to start living!

In Sunshine and Cathartic Rain,
Her Grace

Salutations, Readers!

This last week, a five year dream-in-the-making came true. A favourite musician released his first solo album and I got to see him in concert with the collective of wonderful singers and musicians that he has been a part of these last five years. And I managed to buy a copy of his CD and did get to have it signed. Swank.
Some may think; "Them? Tacky. That's for old people."
I say to you; "Pish. You don't know what you're missing."
I am enormously excited that the rest of the world is catching up to them. Proud. Happy. Delighted. Supportive. Please do check out their links, I have included them in my List of Links for You.

Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea. However, they are one of mine. A really good, swanking, tasty cup of perfectly brewed tea. If White Peony and Earl Grey Moonlight had a baby, that cup of tea would be Keith Harkin.

Congratulations, Mr Harkin! May the future ever brighten!

All my Geeky-Tea-Loving-Hugs,
Her Grace

Good evening, dear readers.

Today marks the day of my first cup of my favourite tea since about two years ago when I ran out of my 454g of the stuff. MEM Tea Imports, out of Boston, Massachusetts, makes this wonderful white tea with peony petals in the blend. The result; White Peony Loose Leaf.
It is extremely delicate, light and gentle in it's flavour. Like most white teas, but somehow even smoother, not dry or bitter. It has delightful notes of a late spring morning. Hot, it is especially pleasant on those cooler mornings...but it is absolutely lovely iced.
 Long story short; I ended up coming home with 115g - which was a bit of a belt buster as teas go; $5.00/28g retail.

O, but it is well worth it.

In Delight,
Her Grace

Word of the Day: Rebirth

Good Day, readers.

As some of you (might) have noticed, I have reworked this blog. It is a new deal. I will continue to share my caffeine-related adventures with you, offer some tea and coffee tasting ideas and all-together point you in a direction of tasting the deliciousness that is tea. I welcome any thoughts and ideas and definitely some tea suggestions.
I also will point you in towards a variety of links -> Music, food, theatre, tea, coffee, art. Please visit these sites; they are some pretty cool cats.

I look forward to hearing from you/writing my tea-thoughts to you!
 Cheers,
Her Grace