beanblogs

In Search of Coffee

I arose this morning without my usual “ease into the morning” routine.  No languid stretches and gentle yoga poses before my morning coffee and workout.  I flew from the bed, exhausted but needing to fire on all cylinders immediately. For those familiar with the old Blondie cartoons, I felt a bit like Dagwood!  I had so much to accomplish today but my body truly wanted to crawl under the covers and sleep.

Several hours into my whirlwind of a day, I realized I needed coffee and food.  I only had time for one and made my ruling by proximity.  There was no time to run to Starbucks so I’d have to get my pick-me-up from a lean protein source instead.  I popped out and around the corner to a new neighborhood restaurant (really more of a deli).  From the moment I opened the door, my senses were delighted by the sights and sounds.  The décor was a nostalgic delight and all of the patrons were gazing around as they ate enjoying the magical whimsy.  As I waited for my order, I too admired the black and white photographs (my personal favorite) and all of the New York props (including a miniature King Kong on a Brooklyn Bridge suspended from the ceiling) that decorated the walls and ceiling. 

I took my eyes from the sights momentarily to scan the patrons.  I love imagining why people are in a place and attaching a back story to them.  Crowds also offer an opportunity to pick up gestures and subtleties to use later in my writing.  As I scanned the room mentally adding details, my eyes met a woman of about 60 with white hair and a twinkle in her eye.  I struck up a conversation and learned that she was actually 73, widowed and the gentleman across from her was her brother.  Greta was visiting her younger brother Joey from her home in New York. 

I am also a widow (although only 43) and we struck common ground.  We’ve both been widowed for less than 5 years and have found our footing and zest for life.  I watched Greta’s eyes light up and the years melt away as she spoke of the loving marriage she shared with her dear Bob for 50 years.  Like me, she had loved long and well and had no regrets.  She was looking forward to seeing her beloved again one day, but not soon!  Greta had discovered a secret that so many miss – life is filled with challenges, heartbreaks and triumphs but each new day is worthy of discovery and celebration.

Greta did not choose to be a widow.  But once she had grieved, she picked herself up and created a new life.  She told me how she had learned to enjoy being able to do “whatever I want.”  Her eyes again twinkled with merriment as she shared her “girl gone wild” adventures.  Of course, at age 73 going wild is taking a walk in Times Square after 8 pm. 

Greta and Bob teased one another as we chatted.  We swapped New York stories and Michigan transplant stories.  It was nice to see that the brother-sister bond only gets better with age. I watched them and thought “ How wonderful to have a life filled with love and laughter.”  My time with Greta and Bob came all too quickly to an end.  I did not get coffee today but got a jolt that will last much longer than a caffeine buzz – a reminder that there are treasures waiting to be opened every day if you’re willing to look!

Until next time,

Karen D. Swim
Words For Hire

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Karen enjoys coffee and writing in Michigan.  Words For Hire is a creative development company offering copywriting, ghostwriting and marketing services to businesses. For information on small business issues visit http://www.wordsforhire.blogspot.com.  If you need help with your creative content, contact Karen at karen@wordsforhirellc.com.

Magic Beans

There is something familiar and soothing about the fragrant aroma of fresh brewed coffee.  I am also a tea drinker but the two beverages deliver different experiences….and yes coffee  is much more than a beverage but an experience.  Coffee with its robust tones begs to be slowly savored.  Whether a mild breakfast tone or a dark roast, the java demands that you take notice. 

My at home coffee ritual differs from my coffee house experience. 

Bloggers Wanted

Bloggers wanted to write about coffee and coffeeshops, tea and teashops, life, the Universe, and everything. Do you love caffeine and does it fuel your writing?   Do you write your journal in Starbucks? Are you a coffeeshop entrepreneur? Do you write creatively? Would you like to share excepts from your journal written in your favourite teashop?

Bloggers wanted.  Get in touch and I will invite you to become a guest author so you can blog here whenever you want. I want to grow this community site and fast, all bloggers welcome on point. Write and let me know who you are. Let me see a snippet of your writing, and you are in!   Do it for the link love, links back to your writing and your site(s).   Give us your photo so readers can see what you look like, international contributions welcomed.

Costa Coffee, Rats and Overcoats

A second piece of writing, from Janet Swift

They came at me in swarms.  An army of waxed paper cups, plastic lids holding back the tide, on the move, gripped firmly, purchased hurriedly by all ranks of the human hive.

My entry to the tube train was momentarily blocked, a panic-inducing moment for a country lass.  I was light years away from the Cotswolds where, among the coffee shop twitter, one sits in an oasis of calm, gently welcoming the day.  My coffee shop isn’t ‘branded’ and, I feel, the better for it.

Costa Coffee ‘on the hoof’ is an altogether different concept and, although somewhat shocking to me, an integral part of the daily ritual for commuters, I noticed. 

The View Over My Starbucks

My favourite coffeeshop is Starbucks.   Not everyone's favourite, I know, but it is mine and this is my blogsite, so there!   And here's the view over my laptop from my seat in my local branch in Jubilee Place, Canary Wharf, London.

Why do I love it there?   Ah now, if I could really get that down on paper, I would be so much more than an aspiring writer.   Starbucks and Canary Wharf are natural partners.   Caffeine is all buzz.   Yes, we know it's not good for us, but we are addicted.   More, I think we are addicted to the whole experience.   We have to have it.

AnnA's Blog on Beans

From AnnA Rushton in Brighton

When it comes coffee shops I am firmly on the side of Alan Bennett who declared that he did all his best writing in cafes. Me too, poetry mostly and the odd endless to do lists whilst enjoying the wonderful raw material that is usually drifting over from other tables. My favourite is a well-established tearoom in Brighton called the Mock Turtle who make the best meringues in the world - the size of a cricket ball, pale brown and not the polystyrene white of commercial ones. They are nicely squidgily chewy in the middle with a different flavour every day. I am a meringue conservative and much prefer the natural vanilla, though have been occasionally seduced away by coffee and walnut, or chestnut and once, passion fruit.

Moments of Magic from an Edinburgh Tea Jennie

As an inveterate tea drinker I wasn’t sure a contribution to the rich, smooth, frothy-looking Beanblogs site could possibly be for me.  And yet, I asked myself, doesn’t tea have a proud tradition amongst thinkers and writers (if not movers and shakers)?  Thomas de Quincey argued that “tea… will always be the favourite beverage of the intellectual”.  Shouldn’t tea have a home in the Beanblog site too?

Of course it does.  I dug a bit deeper and found the appropriate mention of “tea” in the submission guidelines and realised that scribbles from tea jennies like myself were just as welcome as from you coffee drinking folk.  And so here I am.

Sandra Got Through University on Tim Horton's and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sandra De Freitas from Toronto is a Tim Horton's fan.

My love for coffee began when I was a young child.  Every Sunday after Church my parents would brew a pot of coffee and I would enjoy the smell of the brewed coffee and the smell of the beans.  As a teenager I worked in a muffin shop that sold 4 coffee flavours daily.  Regular, decaf and Irish Cream were always fresh and ready for customers.  The 4th kind would either be Vanilla Hazelnut or Chocolate Almond.  I would again smell the delicious coffee but would barely drink it even though it was free.  You see, I was told coffee would stunt my growth.  I didn’t want to take any chances as I was always the shortest person in class.  I missed out on drinking pots and pots of free coffee and I’m still only 5 foot 1 inch tall!

Coffee, Toast & Sizzling Bacon

From Janet Swift, another of my favourite writers, in Gloucester, England.

Each morning, I received the call sign.  Desperate to respond but forbidden by the ticking of my wristwatch, I hurried to my destination.  Oh yes, I punished myself in my weekday exposure to the signal.  I felt even more virtuous as I rushed to work, having alighted from the Park & Ride, a stop early.

I enjoyed engaging in daily competition with the bus.  You see, if I ‘stepped on it’, I could reach the office before the bus completed the ‘inner circuit’, cruising to a halt outside our door.  Great exercise and fresh air, but daily torment.

Surprisingly, the intensity of desire aroused was constant, winter or summer.  On dank, dark mornings it yielded the promise of warmth, companionship and succour.  Bright summer mornings promised freshness and chat.  And the nature of this ‘call to participate’?  I promise, when I enlighten you, you’ll be there with me, sharing, feeling, enjoying . . .

How My Local Coffee Shop Saved My Life

From Hilda Carroll, in Dublin

Well, I may be stretching the truth a bit on a couple of fronts.  First of all, it’s not a coffee shop but a small Italian restaurant.  And secondly, it didn’t save my life, but it certainly helped keep my business on track for a number of weeks while BT and Eircom blamed each other for my lack of broadband connectivity.

At the end of August last year I moved house, and for weeks played tag with the two main landline/internet telecom providers in Ireland in an effort to get my broadband connection up and running.  It was more than a tad frustrating, and while I was waiting I had to make do with internet cafes to try and stay on top of my emails.  I could live with it, but it was less than ideal, as none of my mails were contained on my own laptop or pc for off-line follow up work.  I did pay a couple of visits to Starbucks, but it required a round trip of over an hour to do that.