Drinking with cats

There have been a lot of changes in my life lately. New position at work, new apartment, new daily routines, and new room layouts. I will eventually get my life sorted out. Thanks to one of my former co-workers, I also have some new tea ware. Specifically, a new tea towel, and a ceramic mug with a strainer basket and lid.
This woman obviously knows me. Of course I did have a cat themed mouse pad and wrist rest for my computer. I also liked to include pictures of cats when I sent out the "evening sheet". The evening sheet was when we looked up who was staff for the next day on all of the non-teaching teams in the hospital. Thanks to my new position, I discovered that there were 2 versions of the calendar that got sent out. My former department got the one that did not list staff for the non-teaching teams. I talked to the person who sent the calendars out and asked her to start sending the calendars that listed all staff. Now my former co-workers do not have to make the evening sheet. In addition to knowing what my favorite animal was, my friend also inadvertently gave me a cup that I had been eyeing as a splurge purchase after I moved. These items come from a fair trade store called 10,000 Villages. The cup was made in Nepal, and the tea towel is from India.
I don't have my printer/scanner set up yet, so you will have to put up with photos instead. At least I got some decent lighting on them thanks to my clearance floor lamp. I really wish I had purchased both of the floor lamps on clearance, but my car was packed so full that day that I barely got the one in. But I digress... As you can see, the holes on the strainer are rather large, made with care by the artist making these cups. My first brew was with my osmanthus oolong. I figured that Chinese oolongs tend to be large leaf teas, so they should work pretty well. Indeed they did. I got a few small leaf pieces in the brew, but nothing majory.
Before brewing...
After brewing...
And of course, drinking. I really like the size of this mug. It fits so well into the palm of my hand. I've also taken to using the set to brew cinnamon tea in the evenings. I just put a piece of cinnamon in the basket, and go through a few rounds of hot water. I've also cut about an inch off the edge of a coffee filter to line the basket, and brew some rooibos tea in it as well. Sometimes I actually use coffee filters to brew coffee, but there are so many other ways to use them, often for making tea! Thank you to my friend for her generous gift. I'm off to drink some tea now.

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