Black with Milk, Please

It’s true, I love my tea. Not just any tea, mind you. Black, strong with robust flavor, a dollop of milk, no sugar, thank you. Herbal tea is nice, too, but doesn’t satisfy in quite the same way. So there you have it.

I didn’t always drink so much tea. I wasn’t raised among tea-drinkers, but early on I opted away from coffee, primarily because in order for it to taste good I needed to feed it lots of milk and sugar, and for all that trouble, why not just have coffee ice cream instead (with hot fudge on top, of course)? (What, you don’t see my logic?)

In any event, I was a natural for tea. British/Scottish blood, all that, and I’m rather fond of it, and that’s that. It’s marvelously friendly, it’s calming and uplifting at the same time, and it’s got this great reputation for solving just about anything (have some tea, dear…!), with sometimes that “anything” including all the ills of the world. It’s good stuff, tea.

My love of tea also lead me to create daily “morning tea” posts on my Patricia Saxton / Saxton Studio facebook page. By now you’ve probably realized I have a thing for working with themes, and I’ve found it’s generally easiest (and more fun) to use subjects one likes a lot. So tea it was, and it turns out those posts have been nicely received. Sometimes I grab nifty teacup or teapot photos from various sources, sometimes I create original designs, and a selection of the latter are included below (all but the vintage photos, which I tossed in for added flavor) …. seemed like a good compilation to end the year, with all the tea that’s seen me through innumerable hours of illustrating, writing, designing and pesky deadlines, not to mention long, wonderful chats around the kitchen table.

Here’s to tea, and all the lovely things it represents.