Teakettle Tuesday and Spouting Off

There's nothing better than a good teapot and it's all about the spout. There is nothing worse than a cheap teapot with a bad spout! Here's my favorite - English bone china - perfect spout:

You'll see this beauty every Saturday for high tea at my house. High tea (or low tea, depending on how much planning goes into the sit-down) was started as a compromise.

When my husband was growing up, weekends were days to look forward to, because his Mom cooked bigger, better meals then. She worked during the week, so weekend meals were more extravagant than the quick weekday fare.

In my youth, Saturdays were snack days, because I had a stay-at-home-mom who cooked full dinners all week. On Saturdays we cleaned house, my folks shopped, and we made do with leftovers or sandwiches. The point is, I now don't want to cook on Saturdays. I also don't want to eat a big meal - it's a day off for my stomach as well as the rest of me.

But hubbs wants something special. So Mick and I compromise with a good and restorative English tea every Saturday afternoon, complete with little sandwiches and scones or some other baked goodies. We both look forward to a change from the regular weekday menu and schedule, and this makes it more of a festive treat without a full-blown meal. Besides, we're coffee drinkers, so tea is a nice change-of-pace once a week.

What else do I have to spout off about today? How about the organic chicken farm a group of investors wants to bring to town?

I'm not so much spouting off about the farm or idea itself. On paper it's a good idea, assuming these investors have experienced labor to run a facility of this type. The town meeting is being held right now, and I decided not to go. A lot of issues will come up including the smell of chicken manure permeating the air, and all the imported labor being brought in to work the facility. Most criticisms come from a place of fear, filled with racism and prejudice at many levels (typical small-minded attitudes), despite the underlying issues that do raise legitimate concerns.

Doubling the population of a town with younger low-income labor will have deep sociological impacts- that's one major concern. A 1.5 million dollar facility will have water needs that might not be met with existing wells, and water that is already environmentally stressed by feedlot run-off. Those are just two challenges of the many issues to consider.

My biggest concern is the employee housing slated to be built on the quarter section behind my two acres. There goes quiet, peace of mind, and remote country living, is my guess. We'll see what happens. I'm sure it'll give lots of folks something to spout off about tomorrow.

Always something new to write about! Anything interesting in your slice of the pie?

Temps: 48/19 winter weather advisory in effect with freezing drizzle and light snow