flight of fancy

Transcript

Page 1: 1 small quiet somewhere - “flight of fancy” by Maiji/Mary Huang. Little Yì holding onto a large leaf like a parachute is slowly drifting down towards Kanthaka’s hand reaching up palm out with a small teacup floating between them. Steam swirling into winged bird like shapes fly about them, along with tea leaves and strokes of shading that resemble tea stains.

Page 2: Kanthaka looks down at Little Yì holding onto a small ginkgo leaf next to a littlef flower.
Kanthaka: Are you ready?
Little Yì: Ready! Kanthaka: *sets down a tray with two small tea cups and two even tinier Little Yì-sized teacups, next to a larger tea bowl* Here we go. *He points to one tiny teacup as Little Yì rests its paws and head on the tray, peering at it* Shall we start with this one?

Page 3: Little Yì explores the tea in the cup, drinks it, and closes its eyes. The taste of the tea evokes the sense of giant tea leaves wrapping around Little Yì and the tea’s warmth filling its little belly with glowing lights as Kanthaka looks down calmly at his own teacup.
Little Yì: *sniff* It smells soupy. *sipppp* I feel cozy on a cold day. Warm round lanterns glow inside me.
Kanthaka: Mmm.

Page 4: Kanthaka and Little Yì smell the fragrance in the tea and in a leaf that holds dried tea leaves. Little Yì envisions itself expanding into a floating ocean.
Kanthaka: How about this one? The leaves smell interesting too, like dry nuts and fruits.
Little Yì: Floating over the ocean. Me sweet and dreaming and wavy.
Kanthaka: Ahh.

Page 5: Little Yì looks over the large tea bowl, then hangs over the edge to drink the tea. Heart-like petals emanate from its body.
Kanthaka: This one… I put in a bigger bowl so we can see it better.
Little Yì: There are orange and red fish swimming around!
Kanthaka: Those are petals.
Little Yì: A pink spring peach bouquet blooming in my heart-tummy!
Kanthaka: How delightful!

Page 6: Kanthaka with his long sleeves rolled up and clipped washing dishes in a large basin. He looks down at Little Yì on the table next to the basin, drying the tiny teacups with a cloth. The background is a cozy looking kitchen with packages and jars in the background and various dried goods and herbs hanging from the ceiling.
End.

Author’s notes

A few years ago I started keeping some tea tasting notes. They’re very amateur; I simply try to describe what the experience is like for me, anything I can articulate about the fragrance, colour, and taste. While I’ve read a bit about tea tasting nomenclature, I’m not particularly knowledgeable and I don’t reference it when I write my notes. As a result, some of my descriptions end up being a little fanciful. I thought it’d be fun to extend that and be just a tiny bit more fanciful. The moment of preparing and savouring tea in mindfulness is a true pleasure. For those curious, the three teas that inspired these descriptions were:

1. A pu-erh
2. An indigenous Taiwanese mountain black tea
3. A peach oolong