ChrysantheYUM!

The homework that is expected of me during "Thanksgiving break," is a bit on the heavy side.  Each day I've had to weigh out my hours carefully to make sure I have enough time to complete my homework. Despite the weight of all I have to do keeping me a little on edge, I have managed to go on some delightful "field trips" to refresh the body and soul. Today Sugata and I went to the Lan Su Chinese garden. During November those who have memberships to the Japanese garden can get free admission to the Chinese garden, (and vice versa). In the early afternoon the weather was cool, but sunny and inviting, and we'd reached the Chinese garden before it seemed we had walked very far at all.

The lady at the gate asked if we'd been to the Chinese garden before. We said we had, but it had been awhile and that we were glad to hear of anything special we should see. She guided us toward the persimmon tree that we could just make out through the gate, and chrysanthemums. Once I spotted the first of the chrysanthemums, I could not stop taking pictures of them.

There were so many different shapes, sizes and colors! All of the chrysanthemums were started from cuttings and grown at the garden's greenhouse. Volunteers and staff carefully attended them for nine months.

We wandered the garden for some time, taking pictures of whatever caught our attention. It began to rain while we were there and we also started getting cold so we ducked into the tea house. I knew right away that I wanted chrysanthemum tea to make my experience complete. According to Chinese traditional medicine, chrysanthemum is supposed to aid in the prevention of a sore throat. It is supposed to clear the liver and the eyes. Sugata wanted to order chrysanthemum tea too, but since we wanted to taste two kinds of tea, and because he'd seen so many lovely gingko leaves on the trees and on the ground this fall, he decided to choose gingko.

We were seated at a table that was big enough for several people, so another couple joined us after we were already on our second refill of hot water. When the waiter brought their tea, he commented that they had ordered the exact same thing as we did, though we had not discussed tea with them at all. The woman had ordered chrysanthemum, the man had ordered gingko.  This may seem extraordinary, but I think it had a lot to do with the power of suggestion within the garden itself. Surrounded by such beautiful flowers and leaves...

...why would you want to drink anything else?