Our "tea house," at our home in Red Bluff, California, is hidden by weeping willows, eucalyptus and other trees and shrubs. The tea house is next to a small pond and gives a clear view to the west across the North Sacramento Valley to the Yolly Bolly Mountain range.
I in the cooler months I drink more coffee than tea, and in the warmer months more cold water and iced tea.
"The first bowl sleekly moistened throat and lips,
The second banished all my loneliness
The third expelled the dullness from my mind,
Sharpening inspiration gained
from all the books I've read.
The fourth brought forth light perspiration,
Dispersing a lifetime's troubles through my pores."
- Lu Tung, Chinese Poet, On Drinking Tea
It is a nice quiet area to read, listen to music, write, and practice taijiquan. The shade is invaluable in the warm months.
Here is what the view to the west looks like in the winter. About .3 miles from our fence is a large almond orchard. Snow on the Yolly Bolly range was down to about 2,500 feet on this day in January.
Very nice place.
ReplyDeleteI'm writing this from our cottage on Lake Huron. That's not too shabby either.
A cottage with a view out onto Lake Huron must be very beautiful. Is the lake shoreline covered with pines and other evergreens?
ReplyDeleteOur property is flat and covered with wild grasses. The field we look across is used by horses. Everything is dry and brown in our hot California inland summers.
Lake Huron is one of the Great Lakes, so the far shore is over the horizon. There are plenty of pine and white birch trees around here.
ReplyDeleteA lake so big that you can't see the other side. Impressive! Lakes in California are almost entirely created by dams for storing water. We do, of course, have the Pacific Ocean which seems to stretch to eternity.
ReplyDeleteWe had three impressive white birch trees in our front yard. However, over the years, the heat and the borers have reduced them to just one failing specimen.