Treen [13]

adj. Made entirely of wood.

A three’s tea.

Tea for a three year old is a magical affair. To boil tea in a saucepan with your aunty gently guiding you is akin, in your eyes, to being an adult.

When you lie in your bed at night, and tell your mother that you no longer need your bed, it makes perfect sense in your head.

‘I am not a child,’ you say, large eyes staring up at the ceiling in the dim gloom, the only light permeating the winter darkness is the soft glow of a lamp in the next room.

‘Oh?’ your mother questions.

‘I am an adult. But I need a big adult bed,’

Sure, child.

Tea for a three year old is a formal affair.

It’s getting two garden chairs ready in the late winter sun. It’s gathering up a knitted blanket, and lugging it outside. It’s carefully some dates into your special treen bowl. It’s helping your aunty pour the milky, sweet concoction into a mug.

Not a small mug.

An adult mug.

It’s drinking tea spiced with cardamom and cinnamon while wrapped up in a blanket, as you chat to your aunty about the birds, the trees, the worms digging deep into the earth. Both of you staring out into the cold sky, the winter sun lighting up your hair and faces.

‘Mama,’ you say, when your mother joins you outside, ‘is this tea caffeine?’

‘Yes, child, it is,’

And you sit up a little straighter, taller, your eyes sparkle with the allure of the unknown, mysterious world of adults who do as they please, and travel where their heart’s desire drives them. 

 

Note: I used to do a challenge where the dictionary would send me a ‘word of the day’ and I would have to make a paragraph/post/piece of writing about that word, or try to use that word in a sentence in a piece of writing. Well, the dictionary sent me the word ‘treen’ today so I decided to use it for Day 13 as a little prompt.

 

 

Image: Winter Birdies by the talented Maria over at Watercolours by Maria Stezhko

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