Lockdown Day 27

Are you a tea or coffee drinker?

Or neither?

I'm a confirmed tea drinker. When I was a child, my parents drunk black tea, no milk or sugar and I seem to remember some sort of coffee substitute that they drank at night. Tea drinking wasn't particularly encouraged and so it wasn't until I was a teenager that I had my first real go at forming a habit. I think it was when I worked at a rest home as the dinner girl. This job entailed giving everyone plates of food, making their hot drinks just the way they liked them, scooping up their spat out pills from the bottom of the cups and feeding them back to them (!), and cleaning up after dinner, including doing all the dishes.

My first cups were milky and sweet, but I soon cut out the sugar and from then on I've drunk it with just milk. Over the years I've come to love my cups of tea more and more and I'm pretty sure the strength of the brew has increased too. My Grandma used to joke she liked her tea strong enough to stand the spoon up in and I think I might be heading the same way! But still with a good splash of milk.

I have my favourite cups, and I think this is part of the ritual. The right shape and weight to hold in my hands, warming them and soothing me.

On the right is my favourite cup at work. A William Morris arts and crafts pattern. I've included the cup on the left just for giggles - it's the one we give to the visiting obstetricians to drink out of ;-)

Then I have my favourite cups at home. I love these ones from Briscoes - the birds caught my eye, but they are also nice and round and hold the perfect amount of tea.

When we started doing some more travel, I decided that my souvenirs would be cups. I'm not a knick-knack person, it's just more stuff to clean and organise, but I do like to have reminders of my travels. Mugs are perfect. Useful and pretty and I think about the places I visited and the people I met when I have my cup of tea.

This is one I bought in Ross on our first trip around the South Island in The Hippo. It's made by Pleasant Point Pottery.

This is a Temuka Pottery mug that we got on our second trip around the South Island. The handle broke off recently, but superglue has done it's job well!

I also like to have mugs made by people I know and this one is from the hands of my good friend Jane. I love it's shape and texture.

Even better is a mug from my travels made by someone I met. And this mug travelled with me from Ailsa Craig, Ontario, Canada. It's made by Marilyn Barbe, who was part of the Quilt Festival Committee and I love the colours, and my husband loves that he can get his big man fingers through the handle!

I also chose this mug from her pottery shop, not made by Marilyn, but I loved the colours on this too.

And then I found this mug in a Newfoundland quilting shop. I had to have it, sewists will understand why.

Who could forget the teapot? My husband bought me this as a birthday present and it's what prompted us to change from teabags to looseleaf tea. It fits enough in it for 3 cups and every morning we fight over that third cup! Conveniently, my husband likes weak tea, so we can often squeeze just enough tea out and water it down for him with hot water. It's had it's handle repaired too and I'll be very sad if it ever breaks again.

(I didn't crop the picture as it's kinda fitting that there is the man himself, having a cup of tea in the background.)

What are your rituals that soothe you? And are you a tea or coffee drinker?