From the archives

I was reading through the blog and checking the stats.  There are a few posts that I think deserve more visibility, so here are a few from the archives:

Six years ago:

The nature of things
There are no shortcuts
Order from chaos
Straight shooting
On receiving teaching
Observing vs. doing

Five years ago:
In the winter suggest warmth
Chado, a way of life
Reduce, recycle, reuse, and repair
Pay attention to what you are doing

Four years ago: 
Knowing contentment
What do you love?
Before Rikyu
Just put the flowers in

Three years ago:
Starting over
There is more to life
The power of commitment
Expert Tea Master

Two years ago:
Telling stories
Furyu
Upon entering the tearoom
Paradox that is the way of tea

One year ago:
Gomei discussion
The true way of tea
Paring back to the essential
Disaster in the tea room

Whew, that is a lot of links.  I also posted some links for the discussion in the comments.   Take your time.  Even browse a little more in the archives.   Coming up in May is the seventh anniversary of the blog and also coming up soon, 500th post.  I will have to think of something special.

Today's sweet

Yuki no ume

In memory of

Meanwhile behind the scenes.....

Take home gift

For Minako sensei

Minako sensei passed away 10 years ago today.  It was devastating at the time, and I felt unconnected and motherless.  I can hardly believe that 10 years have passed and yet it seems like she has been gone forever.  I am a teacher now, and that is what Minako sensei wanted for me.  But, oh, do I miss her every time I step into the tea room.  I am grateful to her for teaching me and encouraging me and instilling in me a love for the way of tea.  I cannot imagaine a life without it. In gratitude we will celebrate Minako sensei with a chakai this weekend.  I have been planning it for months, planning for 10 years....

Tea Ceremony for One

In preparation for one meeting in a lifetime,
I swept and dusted the tea room,
unrolled the scroll to hang.
I set the kettle to boil,
scooped tea powder into the container,
rinsed the tea bowl clean.
I filled the cold water jar,
carefully wiped the tea scoop
and arranged a single flower.

When the kettle
began to sing its lament,
I made you a bowl of tea
though you were not there to drink it.
I heard your step
whispering across the tatami,
glimpsed a shadow of your kimono
in the swirls of steam.

I inhaled the fragrance of plum
on a cold winter day
and sat listening to the wind in the pines.

The tea tasted so bitter that day.

Elevate your temae

I have a few students who can no longer sit seiza on tatami.  Some of them are sad because there are only a few table style temae you can do.  And there is no difference in the seasons for table style.  So I had a plan for them.

In Portland, we have been rather snowed in for the last three days.  That means that Mr. Sweetpersimmon has been in the shop and I have been at the sewing machine.  Look what we completed this week.  I asked my husband to build me a tatami table so that my students who cannot kneel can sit and make tea on stools.  From photos and diagrams he designed and built not only a tatami table, but a table that can fit a sunken ro.  He also designed the two tables to be portable.  They fold up into two boxes.  Not only that, he made the right hand table so that it can be changed out for the furo season. This means that we can do any temae on this table.  Which is good, because he will soon close the tea room for phase 2 of the renovations, and we can still have class on the tatami table.

Portable elevated tatami with sunken ro