Carnival of Family Life: Tea Edition

Posted April 28th, 2008 by Jen in blog stuff, carnivals, family life

Welcome to the Carnival of Family Life: Tea Edition! I’m so glad you’re here, please sit a spell and I’ll put the kettle on. I’ll be weaving a bit of the fascinating story of tea into my presentation of blog posts, and I hope you’ll be thinking of warm conversations with good friends. I found a lovely old book, Talking of Tea (1956) from which I’ll pull some tea tidbits and treasures for you, and also The Charms of Tea by the Editors of Victoria Magazine (1991).

By the eighteenth century tea had taken hold of Britain and one remarkable consequence was the rapid development of pottery and porcelain for tea wares. The original Chinese tea cups were tiny fragile things without handles or saucers. The Europeans modified accordingly to suit their grand tastes for tea, making a bigger cup, and giving the teacup a handle to make holding a hot cup an easier matter.

One ingenious tea cup variation of the late nineteenth century was the mustache cup. This cup was fitted with a bar across the inside for the drooping mustache to rest upon so the tea could be swallowed without first passing through a hairy filter. Which brings me to the first post about family pets (just thinking about hair):

Matt M presents Polluted Pets

EDUCATION

Josh Lien presents Free Rosetta Stone - Learn a Foreign Language

Elaine presents 2 - Two Little Dicky Birds

Rose presents Trendy, green, frugal, and homeschooling

Mark Montgomery presents Visiting College Campuses: Observations by a Professional Tour-Taker

Renae presents Muss-Makers
Before the end of the eighteenth century the firm of Twining was using tea wrappers, printed in the style of tradesmens’ cards of the period. Grocers also began to wrap their customers’ tea purchases in tin and lead foil, which was included in the gross weight of the tea. But the practice led to abuse, and unscrupulous grocers gave false weights. At the same time, some Chinese merchants began to colour their cheap teas with artificial powder so as to make them look like the best. G. Huxley, Talking of Tea

FAMILY FINANCE

iMagxz presents 22 uses for Toothpaste

tipsandtricks presents Getting More From The Tube

Neelakantha presents 101 Tips & Resources for the Upside-Down Homeowner

Matthew Paulson presents Lunchtime Lessons: Cheap Fixin’s and Good Ideas

Debbie presents Paying Attention to the “Fill Line” Will Save You Money

Debt Freedom Fighter presents 5 Ways To Save Money On Everyday Purchases

Ken Clark presents Mother’s Day: Shop for Mom and Save for College

Linda W. presents How To Talk About Money With Your Partner

Mark Butler presents Living With Less

Fathersez presents How I intend to help my daughters secure jobs they would like

Leaving The Folks presents Creating a Budget

Amy @ The Q Family presents Be a Hero. “Save the Cash, Save the World”

Stephanie presents Coupons and Deals

Matthew Paulson presents Cheap Vacation Idea: Don’t Leave Home

Debt Freedom Fighter presents Why God Doesn’t Always Answer Prayers About Money

K presents Meal Planning On Vacation

What should mightily recommend the use of Tea to Gentlemen of a sprightly Genius, who would preserve the Continuance of their lively and distinct Ideas, is its eminent and unequalled Power to take off, or prevent Drowsiness and Dulness, Damps and Clouds on the Brain, and intellectual Faculties. It begets a watchful Briskness, dispels Heaviness; it keeps the Eyes wakeful the Head clear, animates the intellectual Powers, maintains or raises lively Ideas, excites and sharpeneth the Thoughts, gives fresh Vigour and Force to Invention, awakens the Senses, and clears the Mind.
Dr. Short, 1750 Discourse on Tea, from Talking of Tea

FAMILY HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Theresa L. Twogood presents Big Picture Progressive Exposure

Amy Vernon presents Are plastic baby bottles really dangerous?

Aparna presents Correcting a gummy smile

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845)

FAMILY HUMOR

Robert Bach presents Daddy Daughter Day

Harrison presents Top 20 Wedding Dresses You Wouldn’t Be Caught Dead In

Jenny Rapson presents My Daughter, the Cover Girl

Tipper presents Lightning Strikes & Granny

Terri Mauro presents Our First Special Olympics

The maid led him through the darkness of the drawing room to the terrace in the patio, where he saw Fermina Daza sitting beside a small table set for two. She offered him tea, chocolate, or coffee. Florentino Ariza asked for coffee, very hot and very strong, and she told the maid: “The usual for me.” The usual was a strong infusion of different kinds of Oriental teas, which raised her spirits after her siesta.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

Evan Pangburn presents Park Chapel Christian Church Baby Dedication

Erica presents Kids or Career? American Women Are Still Forced to Choose

BeThisWay presents Love Uncluttered

Jen presents Seasons Come and Seasons Go

Amy Dyck presents Raw Passion

Steven Chang presents Reconnecting With Your Spouse

Leslie Williams presents The Nature of the Beast, A Problem to be Addressed, or Failure as a Mother

“You can ask Diana to come over and spend the afternoon with you and have tea here.”
“Oh, Marilla!” Anne clasped her hands. “How perfectly lovely! You are able to imagine things after all or else you’d never have understood how I’ve longed for that very thing. It will seem so nice and grown-uppish. No fear of my forgetting to put the tea to draw when I have company. Oh, Marilla, can I use the rosebud spray tea set?”
–L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

FAMILY ACTIVITIES AND TRAVEL

Christine presents The Earth Laughs in Flowers

FitBuff presents Nintendo Wii Fit Release Date

GP presents Mending Fences.. Not for the Sheepish

Riley presents A Plumm Summer

Kelsey presents Kids’ Face Painting

PARENTING TIPS AND ADVICE

Fred Black presents Have we Forgotten

Amanda presents Keeping up, the story of three journals

Abel Cheng presents What I Did When My Daughter said, “I Don’t Want to Go to School!”

Lori Jewett presents Baby Talk

Jessica Jones presents Winning at Parenting through Trust

Neena presents Parenting Tips: Naptime

Chief Family Officer presents Potty Training Tips

Melitsa presents Tip: Sound communication

This concludes the Carnival of Family Life: Tea Edition. Said Rev. Sydney Smith on tea and posts: “It is a place with only one post a day…In the country I always fear that creation will expire before tea-time. (from The Smith of Smiths).

Submit your blog article to the next edition of the Carnival of Family Life using the handy BlogCarnival Submission Form. Up next at All Rileyed Up.

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