Cup of tea was a reward

Sometimes a warm cup of tea hits the spot. After a busy week, followed by an even busier weekend, I was half frozen from being outside most of the day. As soon as I got home I fixed a cup of tea. The liquid warmed my insides while I huddled under a blanket and tried to thaw out.
The week had been warm and I had spent it trying to catch up on all the outdoor chores. I weeded and planted. I divided bulbs and gave them new homes. I patched a rotten spot on the porch and scraped away flaky paint. Then I weeded and planted some more while my husband mowed the lawn.
After all the work was done, or at least at a stopping point, we treated ourselves to a night out at a dinner theater in a little town near ours. It started raining on the way over. The hostess, Rita, couldn’t find our reservation but let us into the cozy establishment anyway. We were seated at a table with some feisty older women who unwittingly provided additional entertainment. The actors on the tiny stage were wonderful. We had smiles on our faces as we drove home in rain that increased in intensity with every dark mile. I was grateful that Mother Nature was watering the newly planted flora but not being able to see through the driving rain was a bit unnerving.
The rain stopped sometime during the night and Saturday morning emerged, crisp and, more importantly, dry.
I had committed to volunteering at an outdoor festival in town. Our allocated space was under a tent and luckily had the edge of a building to block part of the intermittent north wind.
Old friends stopped by to chat. Time goes much faster in the company of friends. We enlisted stray children to try the crafts we had prepared. Whenever my toes threatened to freeze, I walked around and checked out the other displays. There are some very talented people in this town and most of them seemed to be at the festival.
I worked at a different booth on Sunday and even though everybody said it was warmer, I thought it was colder. I abandoned them a couple of hours before quitting time but not before shaking hands with President Abraham Lincoln. He looked amazing for being more than 200 years old and had recovered nicely from the fatal wound that ended his presidency. The fatal shot had left him a bit addled as he thought he was still campaigning for the highest office in the land.
Shortly after bidding him goodbye, I was at home, sipping tea and shivering under a blanket. I checked with my daughter and learned that the grandchildren were finally starting to recover from the creeping crud that had plagued them for the last few days.
I would have suggested that she give them some sassafras tea to soothe their tortured tummies but she tends to dismiss my home remedies as so much outdated balderdash.
Besides, it is next to impossible to get real sassafras tea anymore. The tea is said to cause various types of cancer and/or to cause liver damage, but one would have to drink a lot of it over a long period of time for this to occur. One can find so-called sassafras products with the harmful component removed. I have tried one or two of these but don’t consider them to be the magic elixir of my youth that cured any and all ailments.
Therefore, I tend to drink regular tea whenever I need a warm drink. I think coffee smells wonderful but have never developed a taste for the bitter brew. Hot cocoa is delicious, but it is tea that I crave when I am cold.
A hot cup of tea has capped a productive week and I am finally beginning to thaw out. I hope your week was as satisfying as mine was. If not, try a cup of tea. It can’t hurt.[[In-content Ad]]