Fire and Forté

We just “celebrated” the Labor Day holiday weekend. We didn’t go anywhere or do anything spcecial and I was perfectly fine with that. The catalog season (my main job) is in full gear and my brain has been working hard the last couple of weeks.

In years past (19 to be exact!), I’ve been known to work over the holiday weekend. This year, I chose not to. I should have, but no one is holding a gun to my head to do so. It’s pressure I bring upon myself.

Instead, I enjoyed the deck, the view, the birds, the stream, the warmth of the sun, and reading. Oh, and of course, TEA!

As all of the pumpkin spice and fall decor emails start to pour into my inbox, I ran across one email from Tea Forté where they mentioned their Sweet Orange Spice Tea and I thought I’d add it to my fall tea repertoire. It arrived last week, so the timing was perfect to honor the last “unofficial” weekend of summer and ring in the orange season of spice and pumpkin.

Here in Maine we don’t always luck out with three glorious days of warmth and sun on a Labor Day weekend, but we sure did THIS year. Ironic, since 2020 has basically sucked in so many, many ways. Friday night was lovely. Saturday night was even better so I pulled out the fire pit and lanterns and enjoyed a lazy four-hour burn and some of the Sweet Orange Spice tea.

It’s not a hot spice like the Harney & Sons hot cinnamon spice tea (which I also love), but a more delicate, citrus essence. You can see the chunks of orange amongst the black tea leaves and it’s a soothing, soft flavor. I truly enjoyed it and will continue to enjoy it throughout the coming fall months.

I cut a wee bouquet of an odd mixture of plants currently blooming in my garden and containers. Two colors of hydrangeas, some deep purple sedum and a unique filler of green oregano with tiny, tiny white flowers. It worked!

As the evening light starts to set lower and later in the sky, the green leaves of the summer trees will soon give way to crimson and gold. I don’t want summer to end, but I welcome the warmth of the fire and the sweet, warm taste of orange in my cup.