The Poets Come To Tea

Never say there isn't anything to do in our little town on the prairie -- sometimes there is too much to do!!!

Thursday, I had company for lunch -- six guests and then I rushed off to the Willa and Danny Ellis Fine Arts Center at the Fort Scott Community College for we were having a very special treat that afternoon.

A poetry reading by well known American poet, George Wallace and British poet, Geraldine Green.   It was a grand hour as wonderful poem after poem was read by those two -- he read selections by Walt Whitman, our own Gordon Parks, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg, Henry David Thoreau, Carl Sandburg and John Steinbeck while Geraldine read selections by  Emily Dickinson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou and Vachal Lindsey.   

Time passed all too quickly -- the hour flew by . . . but time has a way of doing that when you're totally entertained!

After the reading, I bought one of Geraldine's books, got her autograph and since she is British, invited her, her husband Geoff and George to tea.

Photo by Angelique McNaughton, Fort Scott Tribune

With the promise of cake and a pot of P G Tips tea (we haven't had a good cup of tea since we left Britain, Geraldine told me), they decided tea at Linderhof would be terrific.

I left a bit before they and headed home so I could quickly set the tea table . . .

The tea tray on the coffee table in the living room

In the living room because there was soft squishy chairs and the breakfast room with the afternoon sun (and temperatures in the ripple digit) was not as comfortable as the east facing living room.

All the necessities for tea on a tray

Blue and white Spode, of course.     Tea pot, cups and saucers and tea plates.    Napkins and some English forks I picked up over here.   I use them for desserts as well as tea.    All brought in on the wicker tray.

As every girl needs a little black dress in her closet, every girl needs a loaf cake in the freezer.

An emergency loaf of banana cake

This one was banana and it thawed in a jiffy!    Thick slices went well with the cups of P G Tips.  

We talked and visited and that time passed all too quickly as well.     And they soon said goodbye.  

It was quite a day at Linderhof from a luncheon for 6 to a poetry reading to a tea for 4.      Never let anyone tell you that there is nothing to do in small towns.

Linderhof's doors are always open to Geraldine, Geoff and George and we hope that if they are ever back in our world, that they come not for tea but for dinner!

It is Tuesday and I'm sharing my Poets Tea with Sandi at Rose Chintz College for Tea Time Tuesday.