Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Rolling Pins  Advent Blog Day 17 : From the Kitchen Cupboard  Creating an unusual Christmas tree doesn't mean you need unusual items or materials - just look in your kitchen cupboard.  It would seem that vintage utensils which perhaps have had their day can find a new life as a Christmas tree - rolling pins, old sieves, funnels, saucepan lids, cake tins .....  Vintage Sieve  Funnels  The star bursts on this tree appear to be made from plastic straws, but I think the bamboo ones, the paper ones, or even those flash metal ones would look even better with the cake tins and metal lids on this kitchen tree. Kitchen tree  Tart tin tree  Silver plate  What about some crockery ... plates, cups and saucers Serving plates and dishes  Tea cups and saucers with chocolates    The most amazing tree created from tableware was built in Haselt, Belgium with 5,000 pieces- porcelain plates ...

This is the Willow Pattern we are most familiar with - a traditional  chinaware design  by Thomas Minton in 1790, popularised for at least the next 200 years. Thinking back to the old poem about the Willow Pattern,  Two birds flying high, A Chinese vessel, sailing by. A bridge with three men, sometimes four, A willow tree, hanging o'er. A Chinese temple, there it stands, Built upon the river sands. An apple tree, with apples on, A crooked fence to end my song I discovered that some of my photos taken recently in China reminded me of  a contemporary Willow Pattern scene. As I am not a skilled photographer by any stretch of the imagination, I have tried to turn two very rather ordinary photos into modern versions of the Willow Pattern - well at least, elements of the Willow Pattern.  1. Original Image - Wild Goose Pagoda , Xian , China   2. Sepia tint   3. Blue tint   4. Blue tint  w...

tea plant , Hangzhou  Last week, I visited the Xihu Lake ( West Lake) area near Hangzhou, Zhejaing Province in China. Besides being a very scenic place, it has the reputation of producing the best green tea in China -  Xihu Longjing tea, or Dragon Well tea. first growth  March picking ( Swallow's tongue)  pre Qing-Ming picking - first Spring  tea shoots  early April  later picking - lower grade 'Dragon Well After the Rain' tea tea picking baskets and tea picker's hat  I tasted the three grades of Dragon Well tea and learnt some important tips about preparing the tea , for example, the water should be 85 degrees C.  Like most other Chinese green tea, Longjing   tea leaves   are roasted   early in processing (after picking) to stop the natural oxidation process, which is a part of creating black and oolong teas. The actions of these enzymes is stopped by "firing" (heating in pans) before they complete...