Today was our last day with the oldest granddaughter and it was in no way the least of days. She and I probably did one of the things we most enjoy. Today, while it was early and still cool, we went to the herb garden and gathered our own personal assortment of fresh herbs, brought them back into the house and made tea. We rinsed them, and I told her about all living things being made up of cells and that that was why we treated the leaves of the plants gently. Then we put them in a tea sock and crushed them. I explained we were breaking the cell structure allowing the plants to give off their oils and scents for us. We then poured water, brought just to a boil, not boiling, over our leaves. When water boils it releases the oxygen and makes the tea taste flat. Only boil water with roots, stems and berries. We then put our saucers over top of the cup so we could capture all the goodness inside, trapping the steam. Then we strained it and she could put honey, sugar or stevia in her tea, stir and taste. We used my delicate fancy cups and saucers, cloth napkins and put some crackers on the tray and traipsed out to the herb garden and sat in the middle of the garden on our bench and had tea. It was very sweet and quiet. The tea was perfect and we listened to all the birds singing. The quieter we were and the longer we sat there the more the birds began to sing. I'm telling you - I looked up at the heavens and silently said, "thank you". What a sharing and loving moment for us both. Then we swung on the tire swing, picked and ate wild blackberries and wild black cherries, played with the gnomes and walked around the lake sipping on honeysuckle blossoms, just like tomboys. It was a very good day.
I waved good-by to my granddaughter and papaw. He is taking her to meet her Daddy and then I went back into the house to do laundry and get things back to normal. Bah!!! Humbug!!!! to normal.