It's Not a Mistake, It's a New Obi Knot!

Pia tied this obi for Kristin and discovered a new knot!

Laura's obi kept staring at me.

Pia's obi

Chabana of thyme-leaf fuschia and white campanula.
The campanula remind me of little stars in celebration of Tanabata.
(Too bad I didn't take the photo before they began to wilt.)

Chabana with Sleeping Cat

Chabana: azalea and Japanese maple in Laura's new vase

In Nikko they say, "The sparrow is safe as long as the cat is asleep." In our house, it's the flowers.

Valentine's Day Okeiko

Chabana — camellia and reed, by Laura
Harvey's Kokoro kogo — Vietnamese porcelain
Kobukusa — plum blossom brocade, by Holly

Recent Chabana

We try to snap a photo of our chabana at Okeiko each week, but I haven't been very good about posting. Here are some recent chabana.

Tea ceremony demonstration, Aug. 21, 2011
red twig dogwood, ornamental oregano
and a crocosmia leaf in a Bizen pottery vase.

Aug. 30, 2011 -- chrysanthemum, acuba and cilantro
in a vase made by a Mendocino County potter

Sept. 6, 2011 -- chrysanthemum, hebe, ornamental oregano,
crab grass and poppy pod in a basket

Sept. 6, 2011 -- Japanese maple and cilantro
in a cylindrical black pottery vase

Sept. 20, 2011 by Laura -- hebe and unknown landscape shrub
in Mendocino pottery vase

Sept. 13, 2011 by Laura -- hydrangea, loosestrife (?),
and cilantro in a Japanese pottery vase

Sept. 27, 2011 by Holly & Kristin --
fuchsia and spirea foliage in a hanging basket

Starry Flowers

Star-shaped campanula flowers
in anticipation of Tanabata
23 June 2011

Official (but belated) Boy's Day post

Tango no Sekku, Boy's Day
Chabana by Laura

Happy Tango no Sekku!

Boy's Day Tea Ceremony.
Flower arrangement of irises by Laura. Re-arrangement by Nikko.

Why Cats Don't Do Chabana

Photo by Laura Dodd

Our cat Nikko takes great pride in rearranging our chabana, which we now call "Nikkobana."

Plum Crazy

Plum trees have started blooming. It makes us giddy to think spring is coming soon.

More from Tea Practice

 Chabana is marigolds, grasses and cilantro seed pods.

For sweets, we removed sticks from kurumi dango (bite-sized walnut-and-white-bean-paste-filled mochi) and placed them on bamboo leaves. Pia thought they looked like little snails, so we cut the bamboo leaf to make antennae. Very seasonal: Since the rains have begun we have lots of tiny snails in the garden.

This week's chabana

This week's flower arrangement brought to you by Laura: River lily arranged with grasses and columbine foliage.

Chabana of the week

Kristin arranged this week's chabana: huckleberry, penstemon and Japanese maple with red samara (the winged seeds of the maple tree).

Rykubondate practice, March 17

Chabana, March 17 – flowering quince

Last week, we set up the chashitsu with two furo for tea practice so two people could make tea at a time. It was cozy with two furo in a four-and-a-half mat room. Because of the new configuration we had to make some adjustments, but since two people at a time could make tea more people got to practice.

Tea practice, Feb. 24

Tea practice on Tuesday was ryakubondate. Laura was teishu for Kristin (shokyaku), Harvey (jikyaku) and Holly (makyaku). I was impressed with how much more naturally Laura made tea this week than last week, with smoother motions and less hesitation.

We used the "temari ball" chawan and orange natsume with flower designs. Flowering quince is blooming. It's one of my favorite flowers for chabana.

Make tea on your birthday

Pussywillow, Tuesday's chabana on Laura's birthday. After her feet recovered from making tea (ryakubondate) we sipped nigori sake and midnight snax in the kitchen.


Here's the mizuya after chashitsu cleaning a couple weeks ago: