ARCHIVE FOR December 2015

Time for a get-together

24 December 2015
Time for a get-together

Christmas is here, it is time to catch one’s breath, take some time out. We are visited by friends, we travel for miles to be with family. We give presents. We open our door to others, to our neighbour who lives alone, perhaps, or to someone who has travelled far. And of course, we welcome them with a cup of tea!

I wish you happy holidays, and I hope you have time to enjoy the intense pleasure of being reunited with loved-ones.
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The finest teas in the world under the tree

18 December 2015
The finest teas in the world under the tree

This man dressed in red with a basket on his back, do you recognise him? He is filling his basket with the greatest care, delicately picking the best tea shoots, for you. A few fir trees can be seen through the mist. I hope that, at the bottom of your tree, in a few days’ time, he will place the finest teas in the world.

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Tea liquor

11 December 2015
Tea liquor

Looking at the liquor is one of the first steps in tea tasting. While the temperature of the cup slowly falls, we pay attention to the colour of the liquid. Green tea produces something pale, while black tea gives a more coppery tone. This does not mean darker tea has been infused for longer, or has a more pronounced fragrance than its neighbour. In fact there are green teas that have a remarkably powerful aroma, even after quite a short infusion. So we cannot conclude from this photo that the most aromatic tea will be the more coloured of the two.

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It is up to us to protect nature

4 December 2015
It is up to us to protect nature

Most countries of the world have met in Paris to try to find a solution to the ecological catastrophe threatening us. First, we need to remind ourselves that we are responsible for this catastrophe. So it is not the catastrophe itself that threatens us, it is ourselves. Humans have, despite their so-called superiority, managed to become a major danger to all living creatures, all ecosystems, and also to themselves.

It is up to us to change our ways. There is no fate. In fact it is not scientific progress that is leading to global warming, but the behaviour of a tiny minority of the people living on this Earth, who are monopolising most of our resources for their own benefit and to gain maximum profit from them. They consume at a frenzied pace, with complete disregard for our natural surroundings.

We must reconcile ourselves with our environment. We need to understand that we are just a part of it, and that to live in harmony with our environment we must accept that we are simply its inhabitants. We must understand that a river, a mountain, a forest, a swamp, an ocean or a high plateau is an ecosystem in itself and that it too has its own existence. An existence that demands our attention.

We will start to do better, and so will the planet, which gives us its resources and its beauty, when we have understood that Earth is not here to serve us humans. That we do not own it. That we have no rights to it, except to protect it, with all its richness and diversity. And that we have better things to do with our lives than to measure our success through what we consume.

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