Tea

I have bought a tea kettle today. I can not believe it has taken me nearly five months to buy a tea kettle after I moved here. My love affair with tea started in my teenage years. I probably was the only teenager who was home later than expected because 'she was taking tea at her best friends house'. When I was twenty my best friend and I prepared an afternoon tea for 20 of her mothers best friends to celebrate her fiftieth birthday. A year later, on vacation in London, we slept in a fleabag hotel where the carpet was duct taped in patches to the floor, but we did take afternoon tea in the Savoy hotel. It's all a matter of priorities. My first cookbooks were books for afternoon tea and ever since I discovered the magazine, I am considering to subscibe to Southern Ladies teatime. And in the last few years I have embroidered more napkins than I could have imagined.
How on earth then has it been five months since I have bought myself a teakettle? I have a scone pan, a mini muffin pan, flower shaped mini bundt pan, I have a teapot, because loose tealeaves are of course much better than teabags. I have a teafilter spoon, I have the insulated teaglass, the beautiful cups, the thick mugs. So what possessed me to make do with microwaved water?
Thanks to some giftcards we still had left from the wedding and last christmas, I now have a beautiful, leCreuset teakettle. Oldfashioned enamel, dark red and pretty. Just waiting for me and that first, perfect cup of tea.