Friday 1 July 2011

I had to go through the cupboard

in which we keep the mugs and glasses yesterday. I wanted a couple of glasses in which to put marmalade. Yes, most of the marmalade is going into the jam jars we collect through the year or that people return to me. However, I also needed two presentable glasses for someone to use as part of a display she is doing.
Naturally the glasses I wanted to use were right at the back of the cupboard. I had to haul out other things before I could get to them. I also removed a few things in the process.
We have a set of mugs. They match the kitchen crockery (Willow pattern). We bought the crockery when we moved into this house and put the mismatching crockery from the old house into boxes for the local charity shop. It sold. I found the mugs some months later - in the local supermarket.
We also have a collection of mugs. My father has three which are entirely his. The one he uses for his breakfast coffee is labelled "Dad". There is a chipped one he takes to the shed which says "Grandpa" and the new one, given to him by a friend of mine, which says "Real men like cats".
He uses that for his bedtime milk drinks.
I have an extra large mug. It has the advantage of being so big I do not have to fill it too full and it means that spills are less likely. It has a picture of a cat holding a computer mouse on it. My sister found it somewhere and I am rather fond of it.
There are also other mugs with cats on them. One of my father's friends has a mug of his own here. He is also extremely fond of cats and his has cats printed all over it. The Whirlwind found one in the charity shop which has a cat chasing a clockwork mouse. It is the one she uses when she is here. There are other cat mugs - all of them given to me. I also have two with sheep on them and one with knitting on the outside.
There is another mug which says "Heartbeat" - the television programme we have never seen. Dad's cousin uses the large plain brown mug.
There are other mugs, too many mugs. I could not use most of them. The handles are the wrong shape for me. My father does not like most of them. He really prefers a cup and saucer - somewhere to put the teaspoon because, unlike me, he has sugar in his tea and coffee.
Right at the back of the cupboard there is a mug with a picture of the local church on it, a building of great historical significance for this state. The mug belonged to my mother. Nobody has used it since she died.

3 comments:

widdershins said...

That's a wonderful end to a wonderful story.

JO said...

Do we all have one mug we've never used? When my first grandson was born my daughter gave me a 'grandma's mug' with prints of his little feet on it. Can't possibly use that!

Anonymous said...

And there is the mug I never use too - given to me by my husband the week before he died. I am afraid to use it for fear of breaking it - even though I hug it every time I dust it. Ros