A cuppa tea + a basket-o-knitting = happiness.

My latest little night-time ritual includes a beautiful mug of tea with honey, and something involving yarn or threads - but lately it's knitting.

Sometimes there are so many varieties of tea to choose from, I don't know which way to drink! But lately, I've been hooked on Celestial Seasonings honey vanilla chamomile. Oh my goodness - it's amazingly good. I've been drinking it so often, I looked up some of the health benefits of chamomile tea--also amazing. Chamomile tea can help everything from sleep disorders and anxiety to muscle twitches and cramps! In the garden, it's a perennial.

Of course, I then had to research the health benefits of knitting. Bennies from clicking your sticks include: reducing high blood pressure, relieving stress, keeping arthritic hands limber, a workout for your aging brain, increasing self-esteem, and good for recovery from surgery to help keep patients relaxed and restful. Wow. My night-time ritual rocks! So tea and knitting it is! If I add a soak in a tub full of lavender water, it could be a real spa night.

My daughter and I have several cute and colorful tea pots that have the strainer basket built-in--and we love making "real" tea, using the actual tea leaves without the bag. Therefore, the next tea experiment is going to involve the lovely lemon thyme in my garden. It is rampant and fragrant, so I'm going to try a little lemon thyme tea with honey, steeping the fresh leaves. It is thought to be good for the throat, your singing voice, and helps prevent indigestion. I'll let you know how it goes.

Eat, write, dream and stitch happy!