Sunday December 1, 2024: A Small Moment of Delight
An elephant tea pet!
Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.
In addition, now and again I will provide some of my fiction to read, for free, on this newsletter. Everything is available to anyone who subscribes, but I am always pleased when someone shows their appreciation for the newsletter by upgrading to paid.
Daily Diary, Day 1551:
As you all may know by now, I am a big tea drinker, often drinking 6 or more cups a day. In fact, a year ago I wrote a whole post on why tea was one of my favorite things. A couple of weeks ago when I was ordering some of my standards teas from Upton Tea Imports, I noticed they had two little figurines for sale that they called tea pets.
Here is what they wrote about one of these figurines of an elephant:
“Symbolizing good fortune, a tea pet is a ceramic figurine from China, usually made from yixing clay. A traditional practice in China is to nourish your tea pet by rinsing it with tea liquor, which helps it to develop a beautiful aroma and patina over time. Part of a Chinese tea ceremony, it is usually placed on a tea tray when one is making tea. Skillfully detailed down to its tiny wrinkles and soulful eyes, this petite pachyderm is expertly handcrafted from a light duan ni yixing clay also known as 'qing duan ni'. The result is a color that closely resembles that of a real elephant.”
I ordered this elephant and I placed her in the bay window in the kitchen, so it has been giving me multiple moments of delight every time I am at the kitchen counter to make tea.
Isn’t she the cutest thing!
What was one of your moments of delight this week?
Brief check in: Very productive day yesterday, finished uploading and formatting Where the Glassflowers Grow in Vellum, then uploaded and published the ebook version for the Kindle. My husband who has finished a five-year project writing a text on the preservation of government documents is looking into how to self-publish it while it is being beta read. As a result, he has been watching as I went through the process of getting my fiction book formatted and put up on Kindle.
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Oh, I love Tea Pets. I went to the ceramic websit and found none available! So sad. I've seen the kind that are not fired beyond the bisque stage and you drip your favorite tea on them each ray. They absorb that tea (black, green, white etc) color. I would LOVE to have the little cat ( lying on its back) or the octopus. But your elephant is darling too!
So cool! Really love when things give us so much joy. Yes, indeed, there is much to be said about tea drinking. The Japanese have surely understood this!
My more than moment, as it continues to give me great delight is moving into a beautiful trailer that is far beyond where I was living before! I don't think the delight will end!