Milk jugs and tea cosies

and tea made as it should be.

A few days ago a friend gave me a milk jug. W... is one of those people for whom I automatically put the kettle on, take out the tea pot and her cup and saucer.  I have never known her to refuse a cup of tea.

We do all this quite casually. W...has even made her own pot of tea when my hands have been covered in flour or something else critical is going on. W... will get her own milk from the fridge too. We both use the containers the milk comes in.

W... is considerably older than I am - almost old enough to be my mother. I know she is "slowing down a bit". When she handed over the milk jug she informed me, "I'm finding it a bit hard to handle those two litre crystal jugs." She was jokingly referring to the plastic containers in which I get my milk. 

Yes, in future I will put milk into a small jug for her use. 

The whole episode took me back to "tea with Grandma" - my paternal grandmother. Grandma did not have milk in her tea. She drank it without milk or sugar. As kittens we were given "milk with a dash of tea" when we sat there with her to have "tea". The milk came straight from the bottle. Grandma did not fuss if it was just us. There were more important things to do...like make another row of gingerbread boys. 

When there were visitors though it was a different story altogether. If the visitors were expected then Grandma would perhaps have made scones. There might be butter and cheese or jam and cream to go with the scones and cake. The big teapot would come out and the tea cosy shaped like an old English thatched cottage - Grandma's mother had made that years before we were even thought of. The "tea trolley" would be carefully covered in an embroidered cloth - cut work made by Grandma many years before. There were matching "afternoon tea" serviettes...the small sort of little use.

On the trolley would go "the tea set". The tea set was a wedding gift. Plates, cups, saucers, the cake plate, the sugar bowl, and the milk jug would all be laid out. Grandma would add milk to the jug at the right time and then cover it with a white crochet doily with glass beads around the edge. People would "have afternoon tea".

It was all very "proper" and, looking back, I am not sure my grandmother really enjoyed all the fuss required. She was more at home in the kitchen making sure that there was a good evening meal on the table. She didn't really care for "small talk" and "gossip" infuriated her even though she tried not to show it.

When they had gone the tea set would be carefully washed. I had to "do the washing up" in order to get one of my Brownie badges. Grandma taught me - with the tea set. I was terrified I was going to break something but Grandma insisted.

"You are not going to break anything. Even if you did it would not be the end of the world."

Somehow my clumsy paws did not break anything...and I managed to earn my Brownie badge.

I still have the tea set. It is possibly quite valuable. It is very fine bone china. Everything has been hand painted - pale blue and gold on off-white. Each piece is numbered. Grandma left it to me - not as the eldest child but as a reminder that "you can do things". 

My mother used it once or twice but the Senior Cat and I never entertained people to afternoon tea in that way. We only ever did it in a casual sort of way. Occasionally I would make scones and the milk would go into the other milk jug - the one that belonged to my maternal grandmother which has no particular value apart from being what it is. 

But I wonder sometimes about "proper afternoon tea" with a proper tea cosy and, above all, a milk jug covered in a white doily with glass beads.