Tea Time

Sharing a cup of tea has always been central to the Lonradh sessions.
So we would like to invite you to share a cup of tea with us.
So many stories get shared over a cup of tea:
Puttng the kettle on, tea pots - warming the pot, pouring the tea, the
familiar feel and weight of a much used tea pot.
Gettng out the cups, the feel of your favourite cup in your hands, the
warmth of the tea.
The careful handling of the good cups, a gift for a wedding, an
anniversary.
Cups or mugs? Does tea taste better in a china cup?
Tea caddies for teabags, or loose leaf tea, tea strainers,
reading the leaves.
The smell of tea, different types of tea, Barry’s Tea, Builder’s tea.
How do you make tea? Do you scald the pot first? Do you leave it brew?
Milk in first? How many tea bags?
Songs and sayings “Tea for two and two for tea……”, ‘and one for the
pot’, ‘tea you could trot a mouse on’, ‘it’s like dishwater’.
In this envelope you will find some prints from the Crawford Art
Gallery’s permanent collecton. We chose these partcular art works
because we felt they worked well with the ideas presented above.
Would you like to draw your favourite cup or tea pot?

Suggested Activities

Feel free to try any or all of the following suggestions.
Try to use the sketch book provided as much as possible.
Take your favourite item associated with tea/tea making and draw it.

1. Create a simple print using carbon paper.
   Put the shiny side of the carbon paper face down on your
   sketchbook page. Use a sharp pencil or biro to draw on the carbon
   paper. Lift the paper every so open to have a look at your drawing.
   The carbon paper will make the drawing look like a print.
2. Tea can stain, so if you brush it onto paper or soak the paper in a
   bowl of cold tea, when dry it will give an aged look.
3. List some thoughts that come to mind associated with tea.
4. Such as, the sound of the kettle boiling, the feel of the tea leaves,
   the smell of loose tea, freshly made tea.
5. Can you think of any sayings you might know about tea?
   For example, ‘So strong you could trot a mouse on it or so weak
   you’d take it outside for fear it would faint’
   ‘Life is like a cup of tea, it’s all in how you make it’
6. How about a poem or a song?
7. We‘ve found one: The Old Woman of the Roads by Padric Colum…”
   (see page 4). Do you know of any others?
8. Have a look at the artworks reproduced in this Art Envelope. Which
   artwork do you like best and why?
   
   Some interesting reading about Tea:
   https://www.irishtmes.com/news/a-taste-for-tea-1.1366186

The Old Woman of the Roads

O, to have a little house!
To own the hearth and stool and all!
The heaped up sods against the fire,
The pile of turf against the wall!
To have a clock with weights and chains
And pendulum swinging up and down!
A dresser filled with shining delph,
Speckled and white and blue and brown!
I could be busy all the day
Clearing and sweeping hearth and floor,
And fixing on their shelf again
My white and blue and speckled store!
I could be quiet there at night
Beside the fire and by myself,
Sure of a bed and loth to leave
The ticking clock and the shining delph!
Och! but I'm weary of mist and dark,
And roads where there's never a house nor bush,
And tired I am of bog and road,
And the crying wind and the lonesome hush!
And I am praying to God on high,
And I am praying Him night and day,
For a little house - a house of my own
Out of the wind's and the rain's way.

Padraic Colum
Favourite Poems We Learned in School, chosen by Thomas F. Walsh.