I sometimes use small branches and twigs. After all, they are parts of real trees and shrubs.
As for the milk, I made it a point to get to the milk box first, just so I could get the cream at the top.That was in the days before homoginization. My family owned a dairy, and we lived directly across the street. Needless to say, our milk was delivered first. We too had the short wide bottles with tapered necks. The caps were wax coated paper with the cardboard insert bearing the dairy name and type of milk. The cardboard inserts were called pogs. It was a popular kids game to flip pogs.
Don
