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I’m actually drinking a Basilur tea entitled New Year’s Gift, but as I can’t find a listing for it here or on the Basilur website, I’m assuming it was a temporary offering. A good one however—a good black tea base with sweet cherry (syrupy without being chemically artificial) and almond that is not bitter. Especially satisfying when taken in a quiet house after a day full of people.

(This concludes the tea comments. It’s OK if you move on from here.)

Day Full of People began with the memorial service for my sister. The family burying ground is three miles out on a gravel road that branches off a two-lane county highway in the little hills of Cedar County, Missouri. Floods have washed out some of the road bed, so you have to drive carefully, but the country stillness is breathtaking. We encountered a bald eagle, a wild turkey that flew over our vehicle, and a second wild turkey (so big it looked like an ostrich!) that flew in and landed on the far side of the cemetery immediately following the closing prayer, a little like a very rural Blue Angels salute. Shari would’ve loved it.

People Day Part 2 was a family reunion in the metropolis of Lockwood with cousins I haven’t seen since I was knee-high to that wild turkey. Plates laden with farm cooking—cornmeal-fried fish, homemade noodles, that cheesy hash brown casserole with sour cream and cornflakes on top that I can’t get my boys to eat…and a great deal of catching up and reminiscing.

A good day, but much to process. Glad I have a good cuppa and a few moments to do that now.