Tea. Toast. and Trivia.

Today, I am joined by my mother, Frances and my sister, Sarah for a discussion on the question: What does it feel like to be the age that you are, right now?

I invite you to put the kettle on and add to this exciting conversation. 

Frances, Sarah and I look forward to your thoughts on Tea Toast &Trivia!

Until next time we meet, safe travels wherever your adventures take you.

Music by Howard Harper-Barnes "Memories of Marigold" #Epidemic Sound

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/YldSXDgo21/

S4 26: Travelling to New Zealand with Mandy Henderson

RETURN

Living in the reality of Covid-19, travel has been curtailed, internationally as well as domestically.   While travel is coming back, I have found, over the past months, that travel is possible through the alchemy of technology.

Welcome to Tea Toast & Trivia – “The Virtual Journey” which will explore new horizons through the eyes of a friend.  As Marcel Proust reminds me, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Today, I am traveling to New Zealand to meet up with my blogger friend, Mandy Henderson. New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses: the North Island and the South Island and over 700 smaller islands.

I invite you to put the kettle on and join the conversation on Tea Toast & Trivia. I have never been to New Zealand and am excited to be sharing this adventure with you.

Thank you, Mandy, for an amazing travel adventure. I felt I was New Zealand with you.

Dear listeners, thank you for joining Mandy and me on Tea Toast & Trivia. Homecoming is a place of belonging and well-being, where we are at one with ourselves and with the world around us. As Mandy wrote after a visit with family, “And in the stillness of the blooms, There travels birdsong without, And words within.”

Music by Claude Signet "Time to Blossom" #EpidemicSound

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/yziSBUL167/

Season 4 Episode 25: Tea & Oranges

This is a podcast in the series called, “It’s all about tea.”

I am your host, Rebecca Budd, and I’m looking forward to sharing this moment with you. So put the kettle on and join me for Tea, Toast. and a little Trivia, where we will discuss the mysteries and adventures of tea: their origins, stories, aromas, and delicious tastes.

I’m making a special cup of tea today, one that is a reminder of friendships, past and present, and the conversations in between. This story dates to the early 1970’s when I moved from Winnipeg to Edmonton.  It was a time of beginnings, and I was eager for new adventures. For me, the 1970’s meant change and forging new possibilities and opportunities.  I was ready to meet new friends, live on my own and embark on an academic journey at University of Alberta.

Canada is a huge country.  There are 1,304.8 kilometres between Winnipeg and Edmonton, which according to my Google sources takes about 13 hours and 21 minutes to drive.  It was no small move.

Tonight, as I wait for my tea to steep, I take a backward glance over forty years and congratulate myself on choosing a city that changed the trajectory of my life.

Edmonton was where I was introduced to a famous blend of tea flavoured with a secret recipe (of course it would be secret) of orange rind and sweet spice.  Oh, the aroma was marvelous.  It was also a nod to my favourite young Canadian poet, Leonard Cohen.

"Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river

Ah, Leonard Cohen.  Did Suzanne really serve him tea and oranges that came all the way from China?  Yes, she did! According to many sources, including NPR, when asked this question Leonard would reply:  “She fed me a tea called Constant Comment, which has small pieces of orange rind in it, which gave birth to the image.”

Constant Comment became my constant companion those years.   Even now, I keep a stash of Constant Comment teabags, wrapped in colourful foil, that when opened, releases a feel-good cinnamon and orange fragrance. Ahhhhh!!! And I say this, without any prompting from The Bigelow Tea Company.

Speaking of “feel good” sensations, the legend behind Constant Comment adds to the enjoyment of taking tea.  You may think that a tea connoisseur fashioned the blend.  After all, Constant Comments remains one of Bigelow’s most popular product.  It was an interior designer, Ruth Campbell Bigelow, who was the mastermind. For more on this story, I invite you to link to Alan Bisbort’s article “Bigelow Tea – A Connecticut Tea Party” in the Connecticut Explored magazine.

Life has a way of evolving in ways that surprise and delight. We are born for exploration. Our curiosity and imagination have the power open doors of possibilities.

I am delighted that I am travelling virtually to Hawthorne, New Jersey, where I am meeting up with photographer, mentor, and personal branding coach, Lynford Morton.

Lyn and I have known each other ever since I joined his on-line photo group that he mentored several years ago.  During this course, group members posted a photo a day with a short explanation. I confess being intimidated by the calibre of photographers, but soon felt a kinship and camaraderie within this group.  Lyn’s enthusiasm and inclusive approach opened the world of photography for me.

Branding & marketing is in Lyn’s blood. He sold his first logo at 12 years old when his school held a contest to see if anyone could create a logo. Lyn won first place and pocketed a tidy $25 prize. The school is still using Lyn’s logo to this day.

How has photography changed the way we view the world?  What is the future of photography in our digital age? How can we engage within a dynamic virtual world? These are the questions that will be discussed today.

I invite you to put the kettle on and add to this exciting dialogue on Tea Toast & Trivia.

Thank you, Lyn, for sharing your knowledge, experience, and insights.  You have been a source of encouragement to me over the years.  You remind me that photography is personal because it tells our story and documents, along with all the other photos that circulate in our virtual world, the greater narrative of our generation.

Listeners, I invite you to connect with Lyn on his website, Shutterbug Life.

Special note on statistics stated in the podcast: How many selfies are taken a day? According to Photutorial’s data, 92 million selfies will be taken daily across all devices in 2022. This number coincides with the fact that 2.3 billion photos are taken every day, 4% of which are selfies.

Music by Max Anson "Heart on Hold" #EpidemicSound 

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/okcVNLImxX/

Season 4 Episode 23: Looking Back with Frances “Milk cows were an asset to any farm.  They were “milked” morning and evening.  Some were easier to milk than others. The milk was a valuable food source, useful for a healthy drink, for cooking, and of course, for homemade butter.  At first, we had a daisy butter churn that resembled an eggbeater.  Later we had a large crock and a doweling with little boards attached to the bottom that Dad had fashioned to “stomp” up and down until the cream turned to butter. But, equally important, cream could be sold.  This cash could be obtained to trade for food at the grocery store.  Mother used to ask: “Where are we going to ‘trade’ today”.  That would determine, of course, where the cream was sold.”  Frances, My Mother’s Memoirs Welcome to Tea, Toast and Trivia. Thank you for listening in. I am your host, Rebecca Budd, and I look forward to sharing this moment with you. When I entered the world of podcasting in 2019, my first goal was to preserve my mother’s story.   Frances was raised on a farm in Nebraska during the eventful decades of the 1930’s and 1940’s.   We read about the Great Depression that spanned the years from 1929 – 1939 and acknowledge that it was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world.  And yet, it is when we hear the stories of those who lived in those years that we come to fully appreciate how history continues to influence our present reality. Today, I am joined by my mother Frances to discuss milking the cows. I invite you to put the kettle on and join in the discussion. Frances and I look forward to your thoughts on TeaToast &Trivia! Thank you for joining Frances and me on Tea Toast and Trivia as we looked back at farming in the past. Until next time we meet, safe travels wherever your adventures take you. 

Music by Emily Rubye “In Another Life” #EpidemicSound

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/zBn6lcut8W/

snowy wilderness

Elizabeth Gauffreau from her book of poetry, Grief Songs: Poems of Love & Remembrance

Welcome to Tea. Toast. & Trivia.

I am delighted that my dear friend, writer and poet, Elizabeth Gauffreau and I have come together to discuss her book of poetry, Grief Songs: Poems of Love and Remembrance.  I am equally thrilled that her daughter, Sonia Elwood, has joined the conversation to share insights gained from her creative journey.

Sonia is an avid reader who enjoys various types of writing as long as it is compelling and either provides an escape or invokes an emotional response. In her 18 years of experience as a training specialist, Sonia presents new materials and information in a way that tells a story to help learners understand new concepts.

We are bringing together New Hampshire, California, and British Columbia to consider how storyteller through poetic words, offers a way to express grief and celebrate memories of loved ones who have gone on before us.

I invite you to put the kettle on and add to this conversation on Tea Toast and Trivia.

Thank you for joining Liz, Sonia, and me on Tea Toast & Trivia. Grief is a deeply personal experience, yet it is an experience all of us have in common.  Perhaps Winnie the Pooh says it best: “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

Thank you, Liz, and Sonia, for sharing your profound thoughts on how grieving is a way to honour those who have gone before. And for the reminder that celebrating the love we have received will sustain us and give courage to live with joy and expectation as we move forward in our timeline.

Listeners you can meet up with Liz on her website lizgauffreau.com, on Amazon and Goodreads. You are only an internet click away from a place where stories dwell.

Music by Peter Sandberg "A Quiet Place" #EpidemicSound

Season 4 Episode 20: Dave Astor on Misty’s Adventures

Welcome to Tea, Toast and Trivia. Thank you for listening in.

Neil Gaiman wrote, “I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand cats to do the same thing at the same time.”

Cats are mysterious creatures that charm us with their antics and comfort us with their soft purring.  I read that petting a cat helps us to meditate and causes a release of oxytocin, which has been found to increase our emotional perception. But do we truly understand them?  They retain remarkable control over their lives, coming and going as their please.   There are many books that will help you connect with cats, some promising techniques to train and learn cat language.

But I have another source of expertise. Today, I am republishing Misty’s Adventures on Tea Toast & Trivia. Dave Astor and Misty are a dynamic duo. Together, they provide insight on the strong and vibrant relationship humans have with these amazing creatures.

Dave Astor and I are once again bridging the 3,923 kilometers between New Jersey and Vancouver to bring you the first podcast in the Misty series.  Every morning, without fail, my mother, Frances, and I meet up via Facebook with Misty and Dave on their adventures. This morning, when we went into the woods, Misty advised that he thought that theatrical productions may be coming back. Misty is a futurist, making brilliant predictions about the future based on current trends.

Thank you for joining Dave, Misty, and me on Tea Toast & Trivia. Thank you, Dave and Misty, for sharing your stories.

My daily walks with Misty and Dave continue to inspire me. Misty’s wisdom and Dave’s humour is a compelling combination.  You can connect with Dave on Dave Astor on Literature.   There is always an adventure in reading and excellent conversations waiting for your arrival on his blog.

Music by Craig Reever "Shine a Little" #EpidemicSound

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/VdKuZX2P9r/

S4 E19: On Location Victoria British Columbia  - Emily Carr, James Bay Inn and Beacon Hill Park

Tea Toast & Trivia Podcast hosted by Rebecca Budd

On Location, James Bay Inn and Beacon Hill Part Victoria, British Columbia.

Passages from Emily Carr’s Autobiography “Growing Pains” Public Domain (Canada)Voice and photography by Rebecca Budd

Music by #EpidemicSound

1) Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen  “End of an Era”

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/dgEeXjlQge/

2) Howard Harper-Barnes “A Leaf Falls”

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/vCliROg8VZ/

3) Johannes Bornlof “I Will Love You To The End”

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/VAhZ2EgIiq/

4) Howard Harper-Barnes “No One Else on Earth”

https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/722bbcNU24/