Cosy

We have stayed in a good few self-catering properties in our time, both at home and abroad. Generally the standard has risen over the years - I haven't forgotten the concrete shed in Samos twenty years ago where it was only possible to move around if one of us stayed on the bed, where the bathroom backed on to the chicken-house and where the kitchen equipment amounted to one very large saucepan that would have taken a whole goat, and one very small saucepan that contained barely half a pint, and nothing in-between - and possibly the improvement is partly due to our spending a bit more on it as we got older, slightly richer and a lot more demanding.

However, the one thing that it always missing is a tea-cosy. Even in England, and even where the kitchen is full of the most specialist equipment, a plethora of pans and cupboards full of crockery, we have never found a tea-cosy to cover the teapot (which itself is always supplied as standard). Discussing this again yesterday, Husband said he had heard a radio phone-in where people didn't even know what a tea-cosy was.

I know that many people make tea in a mug. I do it myself at work. But at home we always make a pot, and often a big pot, and if we didn't use a cosy then our second cups would be tepid, never mind the third and fourth cups.

Tea-cosies used to be a staple at church fairs, bring and buy sales and all sorts of fund-raising events because they are easy to make (I prefer knitted ones with holes for handle and spout). Not so long ago, there were lots of novelty ones shaped like cats or cottages, but even these are not so easy to find nowadays.

And if tea-cosies are becoming rarer, what about their small cousins, egg-cosies? I can't remember the last time I saw an egg cosy for sale. Are they following anti-macassars and lace doilies into extinction?

(In case you are wondering, we use either a folded tea-towel draped over the pot or, as at present, Husband's woolly hat. The warmth of the pot has the added advantage of drying it off after a wet day out although it must be said that it is getting less fragrant as the week wears on).