Early Morning Blues

Another dark quiet morning to wake up to.  I am refreshed after a good night's sleep and my early morning mug of tea , sipped from a lovely big Friesian  blue and white cup which D gave me some years ago.  It had a lid which I gave to a friend who  admired it  and was going to  use it to put on top of her bedside glass of water, and a saucer which now has a chip out of it and also a china insert for making tea with tea leaves. I might try it out with some feijoa tea I have.  I somehow think the tea is too fine not to flow into the mug with the water.  Will have to get out my trusty fine- meshed tea strainer as well. The thought of it is making my mouth water.

Fruity teas could well quench the thirst and ease the dry mouth discomfort I and other Parkinson's people sometimes experience.  Our taste buds get jaded too and some poor people lose more of them than others.  Mine are not too badly affected but I avail myself of the experience of stimulating my senses , smell included , by rubbing herbs like rosemary , basil, or lavender between my fingers as I pass them in my garden. 

I use them in cooking too as well as lots of parsley for colour.  I discovered  some self-sown dill in the garden yesterday which goes so well with broad beans in a white sauce.  I have some little bags of beans from last year in the freezer which I will now use.  It reminds me it is time  to sow broad bean seeds too for Spring now that Autumn is here.  

I heard recently at a meeting I went to that there are about 1000 taste buds in the mouth. In different parts of the mouth too. Hot food stimulates them and makes a meal more appetising. Slow eating sometimes means your meal gets cold and you don't feel like finishing it. Why not heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds.and have another go.

Finished my Monet jigsaw yesterday. It was a marathon effort and took about ten days to do off and on during the day. Will be able to use the dining room table again and have our evening meal in there now that it is not so hot with the westerly sun in the late afternoon. Will be using our impressionist table mats and Monet coasters  for a while to relive the experience.  

I remember the time we were in Rouen and saw rooms of Monet paintings in the museum there and visited the cathedral that features so often in his paintings.  Would be lovely to travel again after a three year hiatus.  It is,something we are working on realising.