I've just made my breakfast, and I brewed up tea. Just tea, nothing exotic or full of stuff, just tea, and somehow this dark wet and rather dreary morning my sense of smell is working so clearly, and I could smell tea.....tea with all it's memories.
Growing up coffee was relatively rare, usually kept more as an occasional treat, but tea ? tea was everywhere. Every meal had tea, every visit had tea, every camp trip had tea. I can remember waking up as a child in the tent and smelling tea and knowing that my Dad was up.
Maybe that's why this morning, wet day, still darkish, and the smell of the tea.
My parents fought in the war, one Uncle who was wounded was sent to cookery school while he recovered. He could cook anywhere, on anything, his recipes were a tad muckle though....eight pounds of flour
sort of thing....and he said that the first thing that they started in the day was the tea.
That the British army moved on tea.
A cousin of my Mum was in the Navy, he said the same thing. Arctic convoy and they brewed tea. All the way from India, they brewed tea. Other Uncle in the Admiralty draughting offices said the same thing.....just they were posh, they had a Tea Lady
Mum was in the WRAF, and she said the Mess always had tea, from dawn to dusk, there was tea. Dad was in Egypt for a while and he said that their tea was served in wee glasses, even in the heat of the day they had wee glasses of hot tea.
VIsiting neighbours, Aunties, Grannies.....tea, always tea.
Camp tea always somehow is mixed with the expected smell of paraffin that my Dad and Uncle used in the Primus. The smell is still immensely comforting.
Eric Methven brewed up at one of the Scottish Meets....I can still smell the Lady Grey. It was lovely, crisp and clear in that early morning air.
Funny how smells linger in the mind, isn't it ? and how they round out with memories. The sound of the water slapping against the side of the boat down the Gareloch and Uncle Jimmy brewing up on the primus inside a galvie bucket sitting on the burden boards.
My Granny's kitchen, and the smell of tea, and gingerbread baking.
We are rather spoiled for choice these days with both teas and methods to brew. It's still such a social thing though, brew up, share a cuppa.
Anyway, how do you take your tea ? Black, one sugar, put a bit of cold in it so I can drink it
M
Growing up coffee was relatively rare, usually kept more as an occasional treat, but tea ? tea was everywhere. Every meal had tea, every visit had tea, every camp trip had tea. I can remember waking up as a child in the tent and smelling tea and knowing that my Dad was up.
Maybe that's why this morning, wet day, still darkish, and the smell of the tea.
My parents fought in the war, one Uncle who was wounded was sent to cookery school while he recovered. He could cook anywhere, on anything, his recipes were a tad muckle though....eight pounds of flour
sort of thing....and he said that the first thing that they started in the day was the tea.That the British army moved on tea.
A cousin of my Mum was in the Navy, he said the same thing. Arctic convoy and they brewed tea. All the way from India, they brewed tea. Other Uncle in the Admiralty draughting offices said the same thing.....just they were posh, they had a Tea Lady
Mum was in the WRAF, and she said the Mess always had tea, from dawn to dusk, there was tea. Dad was in Egypt for a while and he said that their tea was served in wee glasses, even in the heat of the day they had wee glasses of hot tea.
VIsiting neighbours, Aunties, Grannies.....tea, always tea.
Camp tea always somehow is mixed with the expected smell of paraffin that my Dad and Uncle used in the Primus. The smell is still immensely comforting.
Eric Methven brewed up at one of the Scottish Meets....I can still smell the Lady Grey. It was lovely, crisp and clear in that early morning air.
Funny how smells linger in the mind, isn't it ? and how they round out with memories. The sound of the water slapping against the side of the boat down the Gareloch and Uncle Jimmy brewing up on the primus inside a galvie bucket sitting on the burden boards.
My Granny's kitchen, and the smell of tea, and gingerbread baking.
We are rather spoiled for choice these days with both teas and methods to brew. It's still such a social thing though, brew up, share a cuppa.
Anyway, how do you take your tea ? Black, one sugar, put a bit of cold in it so I can drink it
M
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tastes lovely, then indigestions sets in.
but my tea chest (set of a dozen drawers must have dozens of teas in it, and there's a drawer full of caddies too.
