Tea, Sympathy and Home Baking

I have spent many hours at home recently, contemplating the choices of tea in an alcove we had made specially for the purpose when renovating some years ago.  Shoulder surgery to my right arm has rendered me somewhat useless at the day to day tasks I take for granted, driving being one of them, hence the time spent in the confines of our house.  Fortunately I have been blessed by a stream of visitors who have helped pass the tedium of home detention.  They're all tea drinkers and excellent bakers.  My luck.

I can still fill the kettle one handed and with a little help, get the lid off the tea caddy, fill my chosen teapot and generally go about tea making duties.  As I contemplate the various offerings in my tea alcove it has become painfully obvious my tea choices are of a narrow focus.  No longer do I house an array of flavoured black teas, greens and the odd herbal to round out my preference for traditional single estate black teas. Over the last eighteen years as The Tea Lady my tastes have morphed from drinking anything and everything to a preference for the subtle nuances of grade, country of origin and time of picking.  In the afternoons I might add a pinch of Lapsang Souchong to my Ceylon tea or branch out wildly and have a Vanilla Rooibos after dinner.

My visitors are perplexed at the lack of exotic choices but they're unfailingly polite about the tea proffered, either with milk or without but rarely with sugar.  It would seem a shame to detract from the flavour of home baking that is bought, shared then left behind for our consumption.  Pumpkin and date cake, coconut and coco rounds, fruity slices and an assortment of biscuits all lovingly baked, artfully presented, unfailingly delicious.

The time honoured tradition of tea, sympathy and home baking as a way of nurturing and caring for friends resonates strongly with me.  I relish a rainy afternoon dedicated to baking, inviting friends to join us for a slice of something and cup of something else.  The bestowing of these blessings in return has lifted my spirits and no doubt aided my recovery.

The power of tea, sympathy and home baking should not be underestimated.
Anna Salek