About Me

My photo
Recent retiree--35 year's experience teaching reading, English, adult basic education and volunteer leadership skills. Started this blog to exchange ideas and commentary with friends and others having an interest in joining the discussions. Greatest life accomplishments include: 1.organized my 3rd grade class to check out library books for me to get around librarian's weekly limit--Amazon.com, the Mullins Elementary 3rd Grade Class of 1956 is still waiting for "thank you" notes; 2. volunteered in the Peace Corps, island of St. Kitts, West Indies; 3.taught adults to read, earn their GEDs., and speak English as a second language; 4. bought a border collie puppy for $6, got evicted rather than give him up, and began a life-long love affair with all things "Dog"; 5. joined a physical fitness boot camp in my mid-50s--don't mess with someone who's been doing regulation pushups in wet grass at 5:30 a.m.; 6. walked across Northern England with best friend Sally--over 80 miles from the Irish to North Seas; and 7. travelled to many foreign countries for pleasure and work.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Fun Mondays, Coffee, and 200 Blog Posts


How timely. Gattina, our host for this week's Fun Monday over at Writer Cramps asks: What do we drink in the morning? Especially on the dreaded Monday mornings? And from what do we drink our beverage of choice? Well, most mornings you'll find me at the computer happily drinking a cup of hot, milky coffee and checking out blog and Facebook buddies. On Monday mornings I'm concentrating on my oldest blog friends, the Fun Monday group. And this post is special indeed--it's the 200th one I've written since starting Summit Musings in May 2007. If you knew me better, especially my track record for following through on projects, you'd realize what an achievement this is. Plain and simple, I'm really glad to be a part of a community of bloggers, sharing the ups and downs of everyday life with people from all over the U.S. and several other countries. Virtual friends rule!

Now Gattina, back to your assignment. My morning beverage of choice is always steaming hot coffee with a generous slurp of 1% milk. I use a cold water Coffee Toddy plastic container to make a syrupy rich coffee extract that I store in the fridge. To make a cup of coffee, just pour the extract in a mug, add milk and water (equal parts of the three) and nuke for about three minutes in the microwave. Perfect results every time.

I have several favorite mugs, many of them bought when traveling and carefully wrapped and tucked into my luggage to keep from breaking until I can get home. The mug in the above photo is from 2005 gardening tour of New Zealand. I bought the cup at Te Papa (Our Place) Museum in Wellington on the North Island. This amazing museum celebrates the Maori, New Zealand's native people. You can see the similarities in the mug etchings and the the carvings on the walls of this Maori meeting house that was set up in the museum.

Funny how drinking from this mug reminds me of that day in Wellington. Wellington is a harbor city and we were taking the inter-islander ferry across the Cook Strait from the North to South Islands. Luckily, I spent the day in Te Papa Museum learning about the Maoris and buying coffee mugs instead of touring gardens for there was fierce rain and winds--almost threatening our ferry ride the next day. Here's to many more blog posts and cups of coffee to bring back the good times!

14 comments:

Jan n Jer said...

Congratulations on your 200th post Faye...I know I have been enjoying your blog since I found you through Fun Monday. keep doing what your doing...I like it!
I am also a morning coffee drinker..love that mug...looks like it holds a generous amount of that wake me up Java!

Sayre said...

Your cup is beautiful! I was wondering where you got it. I do see the similarities. As one of your faithful follwers (though I don't always comment), I'm glad you're here!

MaR said...

Love your mug and story!! congratulations on your 200th blog post and happy Monday.

my mug

MaR said...

Thanks for your visit and remark. The numbers mean the Libra dates in German style, DD.MM vs American style MM/DD...I updated my post :)

Gattina said...

I never thought when I put up this topic that so interesting posts would come out ! I am learning a lot about morning rituals mugs and cups, it's really interesting because it's international. I don't like milk in my coffee !
And congratulations to 200 posts !

Debs said...

Your mug is beautiful!

Melli said...

Now THAT is an awesome coffee mug! That baby would have been in MY bag, safely wrapped too! I think you WIN for BEST mug today! I LOVE it!

Congrats on your 200th post!

eastcoastlife said...

Congratulations on your 200th blog post!

Love your mug. I have not tried buying mugs or crockery when I'm on a trip because it would not be easy travelling with such fragile objects. :P

Jan said...

Contrats on your 200th post. Mugs are great travel souvenirs.

Anonymous said...

Well that's a beautiful mug. Very nice and Congrats on the 200th post :)

Pamela said...

part of the ritual is smelling the coffee brew -- so I doubt that I could go the syrup route.

I didn't get home in time to get a post up -- but I'm enjoying visiting everyone elses mugs!

Pamela said...

ps. and congrats on 200 posts!!!!!

Living Life said...

Dang it - I missed FM once again. It was such a busy weekend, that I simply did not get a chance to do a post.

I love your mug from New Zealand. I also like your idea of collecting mugs from the places you've traveled. I usually collect Christmas ornaments from the places I've traveled.

Congratulations on post #200!! Keep em' coming Faye! I am one of your faithful followers and I appreciate all of your insightful comments on my blog!

joanygee said...

Well done! 200 blog posts!
What lovely memories your cup has for you.
Thanks for sharing...