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Reblogged from Coffee, and the Quill:

I'm not a famous writer.

Not yet, anyway. I've always had this hope that one day I would be writing something for a living. One day, I could write to earn an income, and people who want to read what I write – people would want to hear what I have to say. As it goes with growing up, though, in my sophomore year of high school I realized that my dream would have to be put on hold.

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Just wanted to share something big that's going on at the Bonilla/Froelich house. Starting on February 1st of this year, John quit his job as a general manager of a restaurant to pursue his writing career. If you're interested, follow his progress on his blog!

Irish Sunrise Tea from KTeas

I received this tea quite a while ago from Jennifer at Tea = Bliss and am finally getting around to trying it. I have to admit that I’ve been drinking 99% coffee and 1% tea for the past few months, which is why there haven’t been any reviews lately. This tea is a pretty strong replacement for morning coffee.

Irish Sunrise looks like coarsely ground coffee and was processed using the Crush-Tear-Curl (CTC) method. I’ve never tried a loose tea that was created this way and was not sure what to expect as far as flavor and strength.

Instead of the leaves being rolled as a final stage, they are passed through a series of cylindrical rollers with hundreds of small sharp “teeth” that Crush, Tear, and Curl. (Crush, Tear, Curl on Wikipedia)

I brewed this with boiling water for three minutes. It’s got a bright astringency to it that just sucks the moisture from your mouth. It’s good but there’s nothing memorable about it. It’s pretty similar to bagged black teas that I would drink growing up.

See other tea reviews of Irish Sunrise tea.

Getting over some dislikes

So, if we’re close, you know that I hate feet. I think they look weird, I don’t want them touching me and I’m a little apprehensive about showing mine off.

I decided to challenge myself to take some shots of my own feet that I like.

 

Rainy Day

It’s raining here and I’ve decided to do what seems like a cold winter day kind of thing to do: knit and drink hot tea. (And for some reason I felt the need to share.)

More gardening

I’ve got a backyard full of tomatoes, oranges, limes and now, finally, some pumpkins!

John discovered them last night when he was showing off all of our gardening feats (and by our I mean Dan and I). So far I’ve seen five tiny pumpkins. I’m hoping the winter squash I planted will start making fruit pretty soon as well. We’ll see.

With all the success I’ve had with growing fruit in my oppressively hot and humid backyard, I’m wondering if I’d be able to successfully grow my own little tea plant. Has anyone else tried this?

There is a small tea garden at Epcot, with a few tea plants growing here and there. (It’s more herbs than tea, actually.) I’m guessing if they can grow tea in Florida, so can I. Who knows how much time someone spends taking care of those things, though.

Anyone know where to buy some tea seeds or a small, started plant?

Tomatoes!

I’ve been gardening in the backyard this year and we’ve finally gotten some little red tomatoes. Can’t wait for the rest to ripen!

24th birthday