Verbena & Thyme

Simplicity, the achievement of it, it's an underrated art. Our culture, we are bent on big splashes, whistles and what's more, bells. More is better and too much is absolutely fine. Sometimes I can actually feel the world spin beneath my feet. Sometimes I just want everything to go quiet, to stop moving, sometimes I just want to catch my breath. I wonder if I am allowed.

I marketed early today, just past seven, and the swelter of Los Angeles had not yet arrived, the streets were quiet and gray. It was still, as this city rarely is, and for a moment I thought I had finally anchored myself on usually bustling ground.

Lemon Verbena & Thyme

The costermongers were setting up the fruits of their labors, leafy jewels whose freshly cut ends were still damp, whose lush green was firmly settled in. I was absolute in my pursuit of but a few things - lemon verbena, a parchment of mushrooms, a handful of dark figs the color of asphalt, freshly lain. For I could see the sun revolve overhead, she, believing that everyone welcomes her advent. This, it's just not true. Sometimes, for some of us, the sun is an affliction, and our lives stop under her glorious blaze: no one enjoys when it's too hot to move.

Home again.

I wanted to share one of my simplest and most private engagements. It's one that requires the slightest few things, and forever reminds me that when the world rushes by at alarming velocity, I can simply let it go by. Simplicity is an art form, the pursuit of it, to be sure. And it's moments like this that I feel accomplished, just me, but a few leaves, the quiet of the early morn that relies upon the the crisp tail of the prior night's eve to catch its breath before unfolding once again.

Lemon Verbena & Thyme Teas

For 4 ounces of water, you will need no more than 6 newly cut verbena leaves or two twigs of the freshest thyme. Just pour boiling water over the herbs, they require about 4 minutes to steep.