TEA AND HYDRANGEAS

TEA and HYDRANGEAS

ORIGINAL ACEO OOAK  
3.5" x 2.5" 
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Hydrangeas always remind me of my Nana. At her house, when you came out of the kitchen, there was a cold outside loo directly across from you. A few steps down past the laundry copper was what today we would call a patio, but to her was the back yard. In front of you was the shed where all the action took place, mangling the clothes, fixing things, storing the boys precious motor bikes etc. And on the right was a tiny garden, with a concrete edge, in which brightly coloured pansies and Nana's huge blue and pink Hydrangeas were always in bloom.

The kettle was always on the hob in Nanas kitchen and strong tea was served up to all and sundry with heaps of white sugar and creamy milk. If you were lucky it was laundry day and there was spotted dick or treacle pudding steamed in the laundry copper. Or perhaps there was baked rice pudding or homemade jam on a crusty white bread. Ah those were the days!

Now Nana had a secret! There was no such thing as tea bags back then, so there was the challenge of what to do with the tea leaves. Never one to waste anything, Nana would pop out to the garden patch, swish around the spent leaves with a bit of water from the tap and empty them at the base of her Hydrangeas. This completely confounded me, why put black tea waste on such a beautiful display of colour? But one day Nana told me her secret, that tea was what gave the Hydrangeas their colour and made them grow big and beautiful! Needless to say whenever I see a Hydrangea I think of my Nana.

Now every time you see a Hydrangea you will think of my Nana too and perhaps one day you will pass on her secret to your granddaughter.

Cat # 13040 Tea and Hydrangeas