Thursday, March 13, 2008

An Abundance of Teakettles

Sometimes you can do something one way for so long, you can almost forget how it started. Take my teakettle situation, for instance.

I enjoy drinking tea, and so does the rest of the family. But for ages, I've not owned a teakettle. Instead, I've heated water in a regular pot on the stove, or (shudder) when I'm in a hurry, in the microwave (though the water never tastes right somehow). If anyone asked me why I didn't have a teakettle, I would tell them it was because I'd burned out so many.

And it's true. I'm notoriously bad at leaving water boiling too long and burning out all sorts of pans and kettles. I just get distracted, usually by reading, writing or cleaning (or hanging out with my daughter) and I leave things on the stove too long. I have some very funny stories I could tell on myself, including the one from the morning I tried to sterilize the sweet girl's pacifiers when she was just a few months old.

I know, you're thinking: but don't teakettles have whistles? Yeeesss, but I usually got the kind where the whistler was optional, and I'd get tired of it and take it out. Dumb move!

Whenever I burned out a cooking pan or sauce pan, I would replace it soon -- because I NEEDED cooking pans. For some reason, I relegated teakettle to luxury item. I'd burned out too many, so somehow in my mind I didn't deserve a teakettle anymore. Weird, I know. While bemoaning the absence of a kettle to my husband not long ago, he laughed and said "I think you've deprived yourself long enough." I laughed and agreed, but still didn't get a teakettle. Does this have anything to do with Scots stubbornness?

Well, in the past few weeks, on separate occasions I've had friends over and we've had tea. Both times I've cheerfully explained why I don't have a teakettle, adding that I'd have to do something about that one day. One friend told me she thought she had an extra one she could give me, which I thought was very sweet, but promptly forgot about it.

Until yesterday, when a silver teakettle (used but nice and quite serviceable, thank you) showed up on the mat outside my door. My friend had remembered and decided to play teakettle fairy. I love it. It's even got one of those "built-in whistlers" so I can't dismantle it and get back into my bad habits!

But it gets better. Also on the mat, when D. brought the teakettle in, was the morning's mail. Included in that was a beautiful note from the other friend I'd been drinking tea with a week or so ago (she lives in another state). The note was just lovely, bringing tears of gratitude to my eyes -- I'm so thankful for friends. And tucked inside the card was a gift of money with another note that said "for a teakettle -- or wherever else you see a need."

When it rains, it pours! Or in this case, steams and whistles! I laughed and laughed over the abundance of kindness. Yes, thank you, Lord, I got it. I really should have a teakettle again.

4 comments:

Erin said...

What a cool story, and what nice friends! Happy tea-drinking! :)

Beth said...

Thanks, Erin! It was a fun and blessed moment in what's been an exhausting week.

Eeyore said...

I love drinking tea and for the past four or five years I've made a point of making it properly--or as properly as I can manage. The tea kettle that I use is a Winnie the Pooh one that I bought years ago (ahem, as a replacement for the same one that I burned up--quite frightening, actually, to find it's enamel bottom stuck to my burner, but that's beside the point). That's likely the only reason I replaced that one--I love seeing Pooh and friends on my stove all the time.

Youngest daughter bought me a small china teapot that I used now and then. But after older daughter came back from working for Disney Cruise Line with a new love of drinking tea (with milk and sugar) with her English friend, we started having more tea in the teapot and putting that tea kettle to better use.

Then in 2006, I visited my college roommate and her husband in Tennessee. She and I went to high tea at a lovely tea shop in Franklin. When I came home I found that I already had china tea cups, cream and sugar bowls, as well as a silver tray for them. Now instead of being hidden away in the hutch, they sit out, ready, for my tea every day, or for the lovely times when my daughters drop by and share tea with me.

A word of warning, though--it's catching to have tea that way. Both daughters have found their tea things and all three of us have a varied selection of teas. I think it's a shame that we don't have the tradition of having an afternoon tea--it makes such a nice break in the day, whether you are with friends/daughters or alone.

Enjoy your new tea kettle (and stay in the room till it whistles to you--it doesn't take that long) and your tea.

Pat

Here's a lovely web site I found, "Coffee, Tea and Thee":

http://www.he-and-she.com/

and their Tea Primer, which doesn't seem to be in the main menu any longer, but is still there:

http://www.he-and-she.com/tea-accessories/tea-primer.html

Now you have way more information about tea than you ever wanted, lol.

Beth said...

Pat, what a lovely post. Thank you for stopping by...and for helping my education about tea! :-) And what a lovely thought, to stop and have tea every day. I think you're right, the English have the right idea there. So glad that you and your daughters are enjoying the tradition.

I hope my friend Erin sees your comment -- she collects all things Pooh and I'm sure would be delighted to hear about a Pooh teakettle! I wonder if they make HP tea things yet?!