L'heure dorée, l'heure du thé

The pitter patter of the rain outside, the somber grey skies of an Autumn morning where the sun does not shine, the cooler temps in the air, and a feeling of sleepiness and urge to cozy up... it begs for a cuppa, don't you think? As soon as the first rains come I'm prone to put the kettle on and delight myself in teas, a multitude of flavours with a dash of milk. I confess to indulging in only black teas, be it Darjeeling, Assam, Ceylan, English Breakfast... I rarely drink tisanes, or herbal teas like verbena, mint, chamomile. I like my tea black, strong and with more milk than any proper Brit would add.

But the moment when I most crave for a hot cuppa is at four p.m. on late Autumn days, when there's a pale but golden light coming in from my living room windows, and a bitter wind outside, and it is cold and dreary, and there are clouds up in the sky, still far, but yet so close as to let you know it will soon be raining hard. That is the golden hour, my golden hour, late November and a gale out there, the sun dropping off in the horizon, bathing the walls with its last light of the day, silence surrounding me, a good book in my hands as I sit on the couch, an hour all for myself before I have a full house once more, filled with laughter and screams of joy as I tickle a certain boy into taking his shower, and then his moody retorts as I force him to do his homework while I cook dinner, and then the sound of the key turning at the front door and a sudden shout of joy from the boy, "Daaad!!" as his father enters the house and comes kiss us and hug us. The house is alive by them, with smells and warmth and voices and joy, and I adore it, but I adore as much those moments of wholesome loneliness when I can sit and drink my tea, restfully, filling my whole self with a sense of peace, utter joy, as the image of what is to come later on the day fills my mind, and heart. It is a moment of pure selfishness, that of my afternoon tea with the golden light of a falling evening caressing the walls and turning everything into magic and warmth and peace. It is a moment when I reassure myself, as I look at what surrounds me, that I have really managed to turn a house into a home, a place where all who live here feel safe, and loved, and cared for, somewhere where we three know we can find our peace and rest and love. And at that moment, with my teas and my golden sunshine, I feel golden myself...