Hot Tea & Slippers

Hot Tea & Slippers: The secrets to surviving Minnesota winter 2010-11.

This blog has been neglected for way too long. August, September and October were busy writing months (of the paying kind, not the blogging kind), and November and December were filled with trips, family and holidays. (Those months were also filled with wine-making, new food tasting, cooking and baking – but more on that in upcoming posts) Then came January.

Although the days are getting longer and brighter, January is always my darkest month of winter. My skin is dry, it’s too cold or too snowy to spend any quality time outdoors and the winter season has officially lost its luster (unfortunately, that won’t stop it from sticking around for at least two more months). But it’s also the perfect time to slow down, read up, take stock and refocus energy, which is pretty much how I’ve spent the last few weeks.

I’ve been reading “The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City” by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, who also write a fabulous blog, Homegrown Evolution. It has me dreaming – literally – about the garden I want to plant this spring.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the work I do now and the work I’d like to do five years from now – and the path I’ll take to get from here to there.

And I’ve been taking plenty of comfort in tea (the loose leaf varieties I’ve been sampling from Mrs. Kelly’s Tea are quite a treat – especially the Irish Breakfast, Lemon and Orange Spice) and slippers (the slippers below I found at Target, but one of these days I’ll slow down enough to make these out of an old sweater).