Slowly catching up ...

photo from www.e-Cobo.com.

AUTUMN DAYS.  BY LOTTIE LINWOOD.

‘Tis Autumn time! the summer flowers

Have faded ‘neath its golden feet;

The birds have left their shady bowers,

And winds chime mournfully and sweet;

The maple boughs, whose folded leaves

Have whispered through the summer days

Like bright-winged birds, around the eaves

Are flitting in the sun’s pale rays;

I hear their rustling low and sweet,
As if an angel floated o’er;

They seem to me like friends I meet,

And love, then part forever more. 

The dreamy lull of limpid streams;

The azure haze that floats above,
Enshroud earth as mysterious dreams,
O’er all our spirits softly move. 

Spirit of dreams! oh, I would bless

Thy soft luxurious charms for aye,

And fold thee in my soul’s caress,

Now and forever till I die!

Oh, chide me not! the low wind rhymes,

Full many a plaintive trembling lay,

And I could listen to her hymns,

Till I had breathed my life away. 
-- from Godey's _Lady's Book_, October 1855. 

Back from the San Francisco International Tea Festival!

Ferry Building Marketplace, San Francisco.
Photo: Elizabeth Urbach.

 Today was the 4th annual San Francisco International Tea Festival, at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, and it was a fun day, although I did wish there was more to the festival than 15 to 20 vendors and 5 lectures.  I did get to taste some really interesting teas, and purchased one of them, a Taiwanese black tea with a really interesting cinnamon-spice aroma and flavor -- and no actual cinnamon or flavoring had been added!  I'll write a follow-up post about my impressions of some of the teas I tasted, later.

2nd Annual San Francisco International Tea Festival

Afternoon Tea Across America members meet up!
Photo: Elizabeth Urbach

Mr. Fong and Mr. Pratt opening the
2012 Festival.  Photo: Elizabeth Urbach

My friend and I went to the The San Francisco International Tea Festival at the Ferry Building Marketplace last Sunday.  A big highlight for me was meeting up with some of the members of the Afternoon Tea Across America e-mail group on Yahoo (see photo at left)!  We had a good time, and will probably go again next year.  The festival, open to tea lovers outside the professional tea trade, involved 16 tea vendors and various experts who offered samples of their tea and tea products, gave lectures and led tea tastings.  There were about 1,000 attendees, who received a small bag of promotional handouts, a few samples of tea, and an official tasting cup, at the festival entrance.

San Francisco International Tea Festival!

Ferry Building in San Francisco.
Wikimedia Commons.

I just heard about the San Francisco International Tea Festival from a tea friend.  I had no idea that this event even existed, and now I totally want to go!  It will be held at the Ferry Building on Saturday, February 25 and admission is $25 per person.

Is anyone else going to this event?  I've never been to this kind of event before, but it sounds like such an interesting and fun experience.