Poetry Teatime: Al fresco!
I love the idea of Poetry Teatime, and the times we have done it, all of us have really enjoyed it. The truth is, though, that we haven’t done it very often. Tea is an afternoon thing, right? But there’s the baby’s nap, and swim practice to get to, and dinner to start, and frankly, most days, there’s already too much to do. Teatime gets delayed, then rescheduled, and then forgotten for months.
This day was different, though. It was a beautiful, perfect spring day in late May, a rarity in Texas. Here, it goes from cold and drizzly to beastly hot nearly instantaneously, and usually in April. We all wanted to be outside, but the kids needed lunch, and really, we needed to do some schoolwork, didn’t we?
Poetry teatime al fresco! I quickly gathered up some lunch and made tea while my 12 year old set the table outside. I retrieved the too-long-neglected stack of poetry books from the dining room (where else would they be?), and we all sat down with a collective, nearly audible sigh.
The 12 year old chose a poem from Caroline Kennedy’s A Family of Poems, which was just a starting point. We got to the section of silly poems and stayed there, relishing each one. The two-year-old, an avid participant in just about everything, surprised us by not wanting to choose a poem. Instead, she insisted that we needed to sing “I’m a Little Teapot,” and so we did. Six times!
Teatime al fresco was perfect. We really do need to make time for it more often.
~Janeen
I love it!! We are not outdoor eaters, but this is so perfect! And the impromptu performance just adds to the splendor. Well done, ladies.