It must have been a hangover from our vacation, and all those outdoors sessions.

The other morning, after Mrs. Teaist had left for work and the cat had been subdued with salmon pâté, I loaded, primed, and fired up the dishwasher. Suddenly, I had an uncontrollable urge to get out into the fresh air, plonk myself down somewhere in the general vicinity of water and greenery, and drink some tea.

The Great Summer of 2018 Heatwave© just keeps a’rolling on, and any heat source even vaguely capable of igniting the tinder dry vegetation is banned, lest it sends half the county up in smoke. That of course dictated that hot water for this al fresco experience would have to be boiled at home, and transported to my destination in a Thermos.

Working on the assumption that I’d get about a 5 – 10°C drop between our kitchen and wherever I ended up, I chose a Tie Guan Yin to take with me, it being a tea happy with water at 90°C or thereabouts.

I pre-weighed out 7 grams, which is just about perfect for the Kamjove pot, my weapon of choice for this event, and popped it into an old matcha tin. A tea cup and a microfibre towel completed the away kit, and once everything was packed into a rucksack I was ready for the off.

A short stroll found me at one of our local hire bike scheme’s docking stations, and I was soon pedalling towards the city centre.

Ten minutes later the bike was safely deposited at a new dock, and after another brief walk I entered Pildammsparken, our largest park.

I found a spot as far away as possible from the gaggles of geese that infest the place, and close to the edge of the lake. I unpacked my kit, and got the ball rolling with a 10 second infusion. Delicious.

Patches of cloud and a slight breeze skimming across the surface of the water gave some blessed relief from the relentless heat. Folks from sunnier climes may titter, but a couple of weeks of temperatures nudging 30°C can soon have us Northerners longing for the sweet misty cool of Autumn’s kiss.

This park is popular with joggers, and most of them gawped nosily as they bounced sweatily past. Bruce Springsteen might have been Born To Run, but most of these guys certainly weren’t.

At one point a lone goose sneaked up behind me, and honked so loudly and angrily that I almost dropped my cup in surprise. Maybe it had been a militant coffee drinker in a previous life, and was protesting the appearance of the sacred leaf on its turf.

The water in the Thermos was good for another four steepings, plus just enough over to give the teaware a swift rinse out. Just as I was packing up, a few raindrops started to fall. Sometime during the session cute fluffy light clouds had been replaced by mean looking dark ones, and they were threatening to dump their load right on top of me.

Just when it looked as though I was in for a soaking, Teaist Jr. called. She was in the area, and wondered if I wanted a lift home. I did.

It was a pleasant wee session, and no mistake, a short time-out from the daily grind that set me up nicely for the rest of the day. I’ll have to do it more often.

No geese were inconvenienced during the writing of this post.