30 November 2014

Pi and Tea, and Our Dog’s Tea Bag Collection

Our puppy Nora has a tea bag collection. She keeps it under the conifer tree at the bottom of our garden. Every day she pushes her long doggy nose between the wooden slats of the compost bin, in search of new treasure to add to her pile.

One day Nora decided to sample more than tea bags. A few hours later she wished she’d hadn’t. I did too.

“We can’t have the dog gulping down everything we put into the compost bin,” I said. “She’s making herself sick.”

So my hero husband Andy drove to the hardware store where he bought some top quality aviary wire.

“I’ll hammer it all the way around the bin,” said Andy. “That will stop Nora stealing our compost. ” He grinned.

But his grin disappeared when a hole appeared. All it took was a few snaps of her wire-cutter teeth, and Nora was able to resume fishing for tea bags.

We’ve given up. Nora hasn’t. Her tea bag collection continues to grow.

I have a collection too. Not tea bags but Pi. Would you like to see my collection?

I have a basic everyday Pi…

… and a beautiful Pi.

How about a real meat Pi? (This is our favourite Pi.)

I’ve collected the director’s slice of Pi…

… and a mile of Pi (for very hungry people)…

I have the making of Pi…

… as well as the musical version.

Just like Nora’s tea bag collection, my Pi collection isn’t finished. I have my eye on more Pi. What shall I add next?

I like Pi. My daughters Sophie and Gemma-Rose like Pi too. Do you?

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All this talk of Pi is making my stomach rumble. I rather fancy a slice of pie. And a cup of tea. Pi(e) and tea. Doesn’t that sound good? Our dog thinks so. She’s grinning. Soon there’ll be one more tea bag in Nora’s collection.

Sue Elvis

I'm an Australian blogger, podcaster, and Youtuber. I write and speak about unschooling, parenting and family life. I'm also the author of the unschooling books 'Curious Unschoolers', 'Radical Unschool Love' and ‘The Unschool Challenge’. You'll find them on Amazon!

10 Comments

  1. We love tea (and pi for that matter!)! We've been drinking lots and lots (pots and pots?) of peppermint tea as we get over this bout of cold and fever. Usually I like a good strong cup of Irish breakfast, or any of the strong dark black teas, but my favorite is a vanilla almond black tea. Mmmmmmm. And I love apricot tea. And smokey Lapsang Souchong. And Twig Kukicha. Yes, we just love tea!

    It's so funny that your dog likes tea! I have to tell Choclo. You may have noticed from what his "dog" thinks about things, he's never had an actual dog (too many allergies in the family).

    I love your Pi collection! We have seen (and liked) some of them, so we can't wait to try the others. Thanks for sharing!

    • Wendy,

      I hope you are feeling much better. I like Irish Breakfast tea but haven't even heard of the others you mention, except for peppermint tea. I think I shall investigate the tea shop in town and try something new. Tea would make a nice Christmas present, together with some home-made biscuits. What do you think?

      Nora is only the second dog we've ever had. Many years ago we had a dog for 6 months while we lived on a fish farm. Most of the rental homes we lived in didn't allow dogs, so the girls were really excited when we got Nora last Easter. (We now live in a home of our own.) She is proving to be a lot of fun.

      Enjoy Pi and your tea!

  2. Well, I'm a fuss pot when it comes to tea and only drink leaf tea from a pot. Recently my teapot was broken (you'd be amazed at how often this happens!) and I had to wait for another to arrive in the mail. It was a few days, I was so glad when it arrived 🙂
    Our dog loves compost too, but only if it's rotted about 75%. He lives for the days when I move the compost bin and he goes for anything he can get, it's really quite disgusting!
    Onto the subject of Pi – I'm afraid my high school days have left me with a permanent cringe at the very mention of the word – a meat pie, however, is always welcome 🙂

    • Kelly,

      My mother would love you. She only drinks tea from a pot too. The rest of us are very uncultured. Our teapot hasn't been taken out of the cupboard for a long time! From what I remember, the teapot design is very important. Too many pots look good but they are hard to hold or drip when the tea is poured. I hope your new teapot turns out to be perfect.

      My love of Pi is fairly new but I have always loved meat pies. Yes, pies are always welcome!

    • San,

      I hope Benedict thinks tea and Angels are the perfect combination too!

      I left a couple of comments on your blog the other day but something strange happened and I think they must have disappeared. Oh well, I have the opportunity to say hello to you now! (I did enjoy reading all your news and looking at the beautiful photos.)

  3. That's quite a collection! We like pi, and pie, and tea…so it all sounds wonderful (except the part about the dog in the compost bin – but then we're cat people, here) Cats don't read books, but we do, and now have Angels of Abbey Creek on order for our next afternoon tea…looking forward to a cozy family read-aloud.

    • You're cat people? We used to be cat people only. We have three cats. Then we got the dog. Unfortunately the cats hate the dog. The dog likes the cats but it's rather disturbing to see her lick her lips when she looks at them!

      You have ordered a copy of my book? Oh that is so lovely. Thank you. I hope you enjoy reading it. Afternoon tea time is the perfect time to read a book together!

  4. I wonder what it is in the tea bags that Nora likes so much. Plantain tea is the only tea that sits well in my tummy these days, which is a pity because I like Earl Grey. Oh well, after tomorrow I can eat pi again. Looking forward to it.

    • Susie,

      I like Earl Grey tea too. And I've also tried Lady Grey which is similar. I've never tasted plantain tea though. I'm sorry to hear you can only drink this tea. I think I'd miss my tea if I couldn't have it.

      I wonder if Nora likes the challenge of pulling the tea bags from the heap. She is a curious and seemingly intelligent dog. She's always investigating things in the garden. Unfortunately she investigated the soil around the base of our house recently and unearthed some pipes which she chewed through. Andy wasn't very happy!

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