Blackberry Winter

Sounds like the name of a novel of some sort, doesn’t it?  Actually I was informed yesterday that right now here in my area we are experiencing blackberry winter.  Blackberry winter was defined to me as being the time when the blackberries are blooming but it gets cold.  Our temps have been in the 50s for the past couple of days … definitely cold for this time of year.  I like it though   : )   Blackberry winter, unfortunately, is not going to last much longer.  Tomorrow the temps will be climbing into the 70s. 

Today I am beginning my weight loss program.  Don’t worry … I won’t bore you with it here   : )   I actually thought about starting a separate blog just to chronicle the joys of losing 80 pounds (should be a rather short blog as I don’t know what “joys” I would write about … lol!) but I’m not sure if I will do that.  I will just say that I am very pleased that I’m finally motivated enough to take this step.    

To celebrate blackberry winter as well as the start of my weight loss, I am enjoying a cup of Hot Cinnamon Sunset tea right now & I am hoping you will join me for a cup!  If you aren’t familiar with this tea, it is by Harney & Sons & it can be bought at Barnes & Noble as well as from H&S online.  I think that having tea is such a pleasurable thing to do!  H&S has several great flavors of tea, & I just found another tea company that offers some pretty interesting flavors on its own!  The name of this company is TeaCo.  I purchased 3 tins of their loose tea recently but had a difficult time choosing just 3!  The ones I chose are Vanilla Hazelnut, Pina Colada, & Mint Chocolate Chip.  I cannot remember offhand all of the other teas they had to offer but I remember there was one called Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup or something like that.  Can you imagine!  Anyway, I enjoy special teas at any time but when I’m dieting they become my special treats.  H&S has a good Chocolate Mint flavor & I always have that at the end of the day after I finish eating my diet dinner.  It’s my dessert   : )

Today I am also taking my first step toward something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now & that is learning the German language.  I’m not German & neither is my husband, but he worked in Germany for a while & I spent some time with him while he was there.  We both love Germany & have been back twice since then.  We actually considered moving there when he retired but we decided that we had too many “things” that we didn’t want to part with.  That’s kind of sad, isn’t it.  Some of those things are, I think, understandable.  Things like window screens (they don’t use them), air conditioning (not something they have in their homes), closets, & good sized kitchens.  There are many good points about living in Germany but those things, especially the first 2, would be rather difficult to do without.  Anyway, I’ve had my eye on the Rosetta Stone courses since learning about them years ago & today I got an email where they are offering the course on a 5-payment plan.  Works for me!  I’m anxious to get started!  The next time we visit Germany, I will be able to mingle with the locals   : )

I am going to leave you this morning with a picture of my first rose from a new rosebush I bought recently.  I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.  It’s called a Julio Iglesias rose.  It not only looks pretty but it has a true rose fragrance.  Can’t wait to plant this!