Winter Dream

Like the swallows, we migrated north this year to avoid some of the southern winter. With parts of Europe experiencing a heat-wave we felt like Icarus that ventured to near to the sun, at times.

We visited many tea emporiums while in Europe and during a visit to “Het Brugse Thee Huis, L’art du The” in Bruges, I bought some loose leaf tea mix called “Winter Dream”. Maybe it was just an instinctive longing for a colder southern winter in the scorching northern heat. Or was it simply the images the fragrant tea conjured up for me. 

On our return we headed straight to Towerwater after a brief stop at our Cape Town home. The Cape winter after the Parisian summer was a bit of an adjustment, but the fact that we were home again was all the warmth we needed.

We awoke with the house and garden shrouded in the familiar winter mist that clears around midday, to the most brilliant of blue winter days. After spending the day in the garden, catching up with gardening chores, we could enjoy some of the “Winter Dream” from Bruges on the lawn.

The hot tea with all the familiar spice smells of winter was welcoming and soothing in the near monochromatic garden. It was surreal to think that we were enjoying tea from Bruges at Towerwater less than 24 hours after we had left Paris.

From misty mornings to mild middays and azure afternoons, we could sit back with a cup of tea, safe in the knowledge that we are living our winter dream.