Knit & Nosh

travel reading

I do not get sick very often. I have read that people with auto-immune diseases get sick less often than the general population, and I do not know if that is true, but it is true that I am seldom sick. Imagine my surprise at being sick three times over the past three months. I have had a cold, been part of a household stomach flu, and now have another cold. For someone who washes their hands as often as I do, I find the whole thing perturbing.

Spending so much time being too tired to do anything other than sit, has left me plenty of time for reading and list making, two things that make me happy.

In making my lists for the two trips I will be taking this summer, I realized that there was a solution to my overpacking reading material that would not require any more work than a couple of "clicks" on my iPad.

I just love having a stack of new magazines to read while on vacation. Pre-vacation, I set them aside as they come into the house, a happy little stack to put in my bag. This summer, in an attempt to lighten my luggage, I am going to try something new. As the magazines arrive, I will save them as before, but I will not be packing them. Instead I will download the issues onto the iPad. Lots of reading material, no extra weight. It should be a win. The wrench in the plan will be if I do not like reading magazines on the iPad. Most of my subscriptions come with digital issues, but I have never used them. We will see.

I will be doing the same thing with books and the kindle. I always pack more books than I can read in a trip, as if there will not be a bookstore where I am going. Because of the arthritis, I only read hardcover books and those things are heavy. I have still chosen way more books than I will be able to read, but they are all on the kindle, again, no extra weight. (I am glad that my kindle is already loaded with books because I am boycotting Amazon until they stop being such big bullies. I hate bullies.)

Maybe I will even be able to get away with bringing a smaller suitcase? Probably not. I have been traveling with the same bag for almost 20 years (no wheels) and it would feel strange to pack anything else.

How do you handle travel reading?

 

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just the tea

Everyday, at some point, I will have a cup of tea. When the weather is cold, it will happen first thing in the morning. When writing, there is usually a cup at my side, one that always grows cold before I manage to finish it. Occasionally I will make a cup late in the afternoon. It was during one of those late afternoon brews that I had a bit of a nausea. Pulling the little tea bag out of my cup I wondered for the first time what that bag was made from. It looks like fabric, but is most likely plastic. EW! Hot plastic in my tea?! I decided then and there that is was time to switch to loose tea and an infuser.

I used infusers many years ago, but got lazy about my brewing habits (aka as having four children), and found some bagged teas that I liked just fine. But the sight of that bit of probably plastic bobbing around in my cup has snapped me back to the land of loose tea. Lucky for me, there is not one, but two tea shops down the hill, and I marched right over to see what they had for me.

Camomile is my go to, and the bags I had been using contained nothing more than a fine powder.

Now I make a cup using actual flowers. So pretty!

Same thing for the White Pear tea that made me question the whole tea bag concept.

 

Beautiful, fragrant leaves now await me.

I am using an infuser similar to this one. Works great in a mug or a pot. My only problem now is traveling. When I travel I always pack tea bags, but traveling with loose tea is going to require a bit more thought. Do you travel with tea? Please share your strategy.

 

 

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