Tea and Sympathy

I went into the garden and threw a swath of saffron silk over my eigthteenth century potting table. I was thumbing through a first edition Jane Austen when my dearest Stefanie came to call for tea...

Well, no...but I do follow blogs that read like that. Ideal lives, in the garden while the rest of us are thawing out in pilled sweat shirts and tubesocks. Still, I read the idyllic posts because I need someone to be living a content warm life somewhere. However Friday afternoon I was writing a post in my head that did sound a little like that...

I had gone to the school book fair. Parents donate books all year then same tired parents return to scoop up the discarded books of others. I expected loads of paperbacks but was surprised to find many old books and sheet music as well. I took armloads from the very first shelf. I had to drive up while children hauled boxes then loaded the car. For. Thirty. Dollars. Seriously, who gets rid of a field guide?

We brought the books into the library and started going through them. My daughter delighted at a book of quotations which, in turn, delighted me. 

I took the opportunity to show her a rare and unexpected gift I had received from my sister as a kid. The Treasure Chest is a book of quotations I feel in love with when I was close to my daughter's age.

The phone rang. Stefanie was nearby and wanted to come get a box of books (again) that involved a poor book club timing issue on my behalf. She offered to help me out with that. As we sat flipping through these old books Stefanie pulled up {in her MiniCooper which is so her because she would be called Sporty Spice in a diffeent set of circumstances} and she was  bearing a cup of tea.

A hot cup of tea. In a birdie and nest mug. Bird and nest. She knew I had been sick with a cold all week and she knows first hand what is to care for a fading mother. And she knows me.

I do not know if Stefanie really knows what that mug of hot tea meant to me. I settled back inside, sipping tea, perusing old tomes and wrote this post in my head.

I receive that tea and friendship Stefanie. Thank you so much.