Tea - From India with Love

Are you a tea drinker? I love a cup of tea, especially first thing in the morning. I used to drink coffee, but switched about ten years ago and I'm so glad I did. Tea is so calming and doesn't leave that bad taste in your mouth afterward.

I was looking through the photos I took when I was in India almost two years ago now (I can't believe it was that long ago) and wanted to share with you the glimpses of life on a tea plantation. Next time you have a cup of tea you can think of these scenes for the background story.

We visited the Glenburn Tea Estate near Darjeeling in north-eastern India. It is a lovely historic plantation set on top of a hill in the Himalayas.

I loved being shown all the stages of the tea process. We were able to hike through the tea gardens themselves and see the tea plants up close.

Did you know that tea bushes are pruned so they end up being like a bonsai. Some of them are 200 years old, but remain short with very thick trunks.  

We saw women picking tea leaves in one of the fields.  Since only the top two leaves at the end of each branch are picked and the tea is grown on steep mountain slopes, picking the tea leaves can only be done by hand.  I'm sure it was hard work carrying a large basket strapped to your forehead up and down the mountains all day so the smiles we got were impressive.

We toured the factory and were shown the many steps necessary to prepare the leaves so they are ready to be made into a wonderful cup of tea.

It is a very complex process and I have forgotten most of what I learned, but I haven't forgotten how much I loved the stenciled boxes that they use to ship tea around the world.  I would loved to have brought one home if I could have figured out how to do it.

We also sampled all the different types of tea produced at Glenburn and how the tea varied in each of the four seasons.  

Are you craving a nice cuppa right now too? I know, all that tea talk has that effect on me as well.

By the way, don't miss seeing the photos of the heavenly hotel at Glenburn - it was a complete highlight of the trip and was the most beautiful hotel I have ever stayed in.  There are also a few more photos of Glenburn in this post.

Picture Improvments with Picnik

I want to thank all of you for your kind words welcoming me home from my summer of traveling.  While I'm very happy to be home (picture me drinking straight from the tap and eating peaches and plums with joy), it has taken me a bit to adjust to getting back into work, getting back into a new routine, and getting the house organized after a wild and crazy spring - okay and let's face it - getting back into cooking and cleaning because I didn't do that for the seven weeks I was away!   


I love looking back at the photos I took in Bangladesh and India and I have spent countless hours making a photo book out of them. I've also been playing around with some of my favourite photos using Picnik, a free on-line photo-editing website which is a source of endless fun for me.  I should say that a portion of the site is free and that is all I use because I'm cheap like that, but there are other wonderful features if you are willing to pay.  In case you missed my earlier posts about the virtues of Picnik, you can read them here and here - and yes - even here.


Picnik has so many different ways to edit and apply effects that I love to try different combinations.  What I do with each photo isn't always exactly the same, but in general I make the following edits:

• use auto-correct to do the initial adjustment
• lighten the exposure 
• bump up the colour a few notches
• straighten the photo (my eyes must be crooked as so many of my photos are slanted - thank heaven for Picnik to fix them up)

And the following effects are my favourites.  I have listed them in descending order from the one I like and use the most, to others that I try.  I also sometimes do more than one effect on a single photo:

• Cinescope (you can uncheck the box so you don't have the letterbox effect with the black lines top and bottom)
• Cross-process (you can use the slide to decrease the amount of effect you want to apply to the photo)
• 1960's (you can uncheck the box so you don't have rounded corners)
• HDR-ish (I definitely move the slide over to minimize the effect of this one)
• Lomo-ish (again I move the slide over to minimize this one as well)

Have a look at the changes I made to my photos below.  In each case the first photo is the original photo and the second shows the changes I made using Picnik.

PHOTO #1 ORIGINAL



PHOTO #1 EDITED USING PICNIK



PHOTO #2 ORIGINAL

PHOTO #2 EDITED USING PICNIK

PHOTO #3 ORIGINAL

PHOTO #3 EDITED USING PICNIK

PHOTO #4 ORIGINAL

PHOTO #4 EDITED USING PICNIK

PHOTO #5 ORIGINAL

PHOTO #5 EDITED USING PICNIK

What do you think?  I'm in love with the last one and am thinking of printing it to put up in our family room.  Anyone else tried on-line photo-editing programs like Picnik?

A Heavenly Hotel

High on a hill, deep in the Himalayas is the most gorgeous hotel I have stayed in - the Glenburn Tea Estate.  I stayed at Glenburn a few weeks ago when I was in India and while the clouds didn't lift enough for us to see the snow-capped mountains, the misty trees and hills were gorgeous.  Not only is Glenburn a working tea plantation and a boutique hotel, but I have also decided it  resembles what my ideal home would be like - a place that is beautifully decorated with amazing views, and has delicious food (that I don't have to prepare), and attentive staff!  


Glenburn was built in 1859 and was lovingly restored in 2002 to the style of a colonial planter's bungalow under the guidance of Bronwyn Latif (an interior designer based in Delhi).  Not only did she capture the feel of a historic home, but she also made it cheerful and welcoming.  In fact it seemed more like a home than a hotel.  I really felt like I could move right in and be very comfortable there.   As I sat on the long veranda that joined all the rooms I pondered what I liked so much about Glenburn and here is what I came up with.  


The colours used throughout were clear colours - colours that are found in nature, like the flowers surrounding the hotel.

The outside of the buildings were painted a lovely fresh apricot colour with white trim and the verandas had either white painted or black and white tiled flooring - very fresh and clean looking.

Some of the rooms had intense jolts of pinks, yellows, greens, or blues, but they were always softened with white trim and accents such as cushions or bedding.  The white was just what was needed to keep all those fresh happy colours peaceful and calm.

Other rooms were painted a clear, calm white and colour was added in the cushions, furniture, and textiles.  

I loved the classic furniture - mostly dark wood, but also some painted wicker and wood pieces.

The art on the walls was appropriate to the location and was interesting - everything from old maps, to botanicals, animal prints, china, and old photographs.

There were flowers in every room - some bouquets were made up of quieter colours,

and some were bolder (the one below was one of my favourites).

I loved the touches of India that had been incorporated in the decor.  Things like skylights, vents, and ceiling fans, 

old British colonial furniture with tropical wood and caned seats, 

deep verandas for relaxing when the days are hot or during the monsoon rains like when we were there,

elephants carved into the headboard,

 and woven into the linens.

and even rush covered water bottles and covers for the drinking glasses on the bedside table.

The bathrooms were all fresh and white with classic mirrors and thick white towels

and baskets of tea-scented bath products.  It is a working tea plantation after all!

It was a lovely serene place to stay - on the top of a hill surrounded by tea fields and looking out to the Himalayan jungle.  I just adored the little alcove I had with the white linens and a little sitting nook.  Isn't it divine - I could have stayed forever (especially if they gave me some of those chocolate brownies and glorious cups of tea every day)! 

Aren't you inspired to incorporate a bit of the Glenburn loveliness into your home? I know I am!