Lake Temp. 45 F.
Ghetto temp. 42 F.
Island tmp. 37 F. Yesterday's L/H: 36.5/38 F. Due to a cold front the morning was warmer than the evening.
Current conditions: Wind from the South, 10 to 15 mph, dark cloud covered sky, ever so slight precipitation.
11/26/08
10/10/08
9/16/08
The day was mostly dark and gray with clouds, hazy, but certainly on the warm side, at least in comparison to last week's temperatures, occasional flurries. The Caretaker was on the mainland for a brief amount of time, he went up and over the mountains to Warrensburg, what was rain here was snow over there, it was nice to see Winter's blanket. Perhaps we'll have a white Thanksgiving here on the Lake, hopefully it will be a white Winter. Now wouldn't that be nice?
The Caretaker is both happy and sad, happy because he was able to have his first cup of proper tea this morning it seemed like an eternity; sad because he ended up dropping his favorite glass tea cup and it shattered on the floor. He was being lazy, trying to do too many things at once, and so sure enough the one thing to fall was his tea cup, thankfully it had no tea in it--that would have been a total travesty. Not to be deterred he grabbed a less favored tea cup and brewed his tea in that. For the morning it was his usual Organic Scottish Breakfast tea (which is the smoothest of all the "Breakfast" teas), during the day the Caretaker usually goes with Green Pekoe and with dinner he usually has Java Kertasarie. Since he had gone so very long without proper tea he had two cups of Java Kertasarie, for a long time Scottish Breakfast had been a big favorite of his, but he is thinking that Java K. may just displace the Scotts, which is quite smooth, but Java K. seems to be even smoother. Once he finishes up his stock of Scotts he will probably just get more Java K. Always grand to find the perfect tea, at least until one's tastes change. Luckily for the Caretaker he is a patron of the world's greatest teashop, Sensibiliteas, which is owned and operated by the world's greatest teasmith, Donnalynn. She carries over 400 teas, if you are ever in the Glens Falls, N.Y. area you should definitely make a point to stop in at her shop, if you are into tea it's like being a kid in a candy store. Even if you aren't too into tea you should still stop in, Donna's always got some good conversation. Never going to make it to Glens Falls? Check out her website, you can order on-line:
http://www.sensibiliteasonline.com/
If you don't feel like copying the link, there is a hyper-link to the left under "Favorite Links", it's at the bottom of the list. Tell Donna the Caretaker sent you. If teasmithing were an art-form, well, were nothing, it is an art-form, Donna is teasmith artist extraordinaire.
Whenever the Caretaker stops in he usually ends up having three cups of tea, originally the Caretaker wasn't expecting to be stopping in for a while because he is pretty well stocked with tea, but now that he needs to replace his favorite tea cup he really has no choice. YES!!! That means more Java Kertasarie. Hm, maybe the Caretaker should break more of his tea-wares, wait, that would be stupid, not that stupid ideas ever stopped him (oh boy is that list ever so long). However, the Caretaker is quite surprised that he has managed to not break his glass teapot for the stove. Should that ever happen though he does have his stainless steel teapot he uses for when he brings tea on the trail. Ah tea. The Caretaker will pass on a tea making secret that he practices, only boil enough water for the tea you are brewing at the time. Once boiled water that has begun to cool goes flat, thus using left over once boiled water for an additional cup or pot of tea flattens the taste of the tea, AND this method conserves energy, the lower the volume of water brought to boil the less energy consumed. Yes it is true that if you know you will be having an additional cup or pot quite soon after the first, the remaining heated water will require less energy to return to boil, but when it comes to preparing tea the best way possible, well, the environment takes a back seat--it's tea for Heaven's sakes.
--The Caretaker
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