Crumpets and Tea
And Probably Some Croquet
What
- When - Where - Who
- Why -
Croquet
What:
Crumpets and Tea are
served on a mid-month Sunday in the San Clemente home of Tom Streeter.
Includes the patio when the weather is nice. Join your fellow
civilized-human-beings for a late-afternoon chat. A chat in which you're not
likely to be hit in the fracas.
-
No door charge. No RSVP.
Arrive when you like, leave when you like.
-
We
have a grand piano available. If you play, please bring some
tea-appropriate music. No disco. No country-western. You get my drift.
-
We offer scones
as well as crumpets. Who knew that there were so many
scotiaphiles in Southern
California?
-
Aye, me sainted
grandmother was, indeed, born in the auld country, in
Lasswade, just south of Edinburgh.
-
Aye,
the scones get eaten far faster than the crumpets do.
-
Bring
a friend or two!
-
This civilized tea party
is usually preceded by an equally civilized round of croquet
beforehand. See below for details.
When:
-
Always from 4:00 PM to
5:30 PM. Tea time, by Jove, just as God commanded unto the
Church of England in 4004 BC. See
Lev. 3:16.
-
Usually on the afternoon of each month's Second Sunday.
-
Well,
once every seventh month or so, we want the tea party to not be on the same
weekend as First Saturday or Third Saturday, so we have the party on Sunday the
15th rather than on Sunday the 8th. So "Second Sunday" really means "Sunday next
following the 8th".
Whatever!
-
Further, one or two months each year, we have to reschedule to Saturday -- or
even to an adjoining weekend.
Conflict with The Opera, you know.
-
Whatever!
-
We'll
announce such things well in advance, both on this webpage and in the
newsletters which announce this tea party.
-
Here's the schedule for
upcoming months:
-
Sunday, July 13, 2009: Ready to go.
-
Sunday, August 9, 2009: Ready to go.
Where:
Who:
Your hostess (who does all of the work, and
who still likes to play tea party
just as much as she did when she was a four-year-old): The Goddess Kristine.
Why:
Eliza Doolittle sang it
best in Without You in
My Fair Lady:
There'll be spring every
year without you.
England still will be
here without you.
There'll be fruit on the tree, and a shore by the sea.
There'll be crumpets and tea without
you.
I can do without you.
Croquet:
Play
begins at 3:00 PM on the large common lawn behind our home. All mallets,
wickets, stakes, and balls are provided.
We
play four individuals and/or teams. We need at least three guests to start:
-
I
play whilst The Goddess Kristine puts the final touches on the tea, crumpets,
scones, doilies, and so on.
-
Stragglers will be added to already-playing individuals/teams.
Bad
weather?
-
We
and our guests step inside, and start sipping tea a bit early.
-
Please click here,
maybe about noon on The Day Of The Event, for a reasonably reliable
weather forecast.
Rules
for playing croquet are subject to change from month to month, and are announced before you are
required (or even allowed!) to commit to being a player. Hey, you just decided to
show up for crumpets and tea an hour early, didn't you? Here, lemme pour you
some Darjeeling. Oooh!
And try these raisin crumpets!
Play
continues for as long as the players feel like it. If you prefer to play on
after 4:00 PM, when the follow-on tea formally begins, feel free. If the first
round finishes before 4:00, then we might well fire up the tea pot a little
early.
Genteel dispute over who beat whom is
expected at the follow-on tea. Genteel dispute, I say.
Dress code:
-
You might want to bring
a hat. That mid-afternoon sun can get intense, even in winter. If you didn't bring a hat, you can borrow one of ours. Warning:
Some of our hats are, um ..., more fashionable/flattering than
others.
-
No, you are not expected
to wear All White, and your host and hostess generally do not do so. However, we
welcome all civilized people for croquet, including Those Who Choose To Make A
Statement By Wearing All White. Perhaps guests who arrive at 4:00 PM -- for tea but
not for croquet -- will inquire about your garb. What a conversation starter!
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