The plan was to set up all the tea and food inside (it just seemed a lot easier, given all the fragile china, the need to boil water for tea, not needing to worry about keeping bugs away from the table full of food, etc.), ask people to wear masks when in the house getting their food and beverages, and then come out to the garden for the tea party, where they could be unmasked. Our town has pretty high vaccination rates, which helps with feeling like this was a reasonably safe activity to host.
It worked REALLY well, and made me feel like with a little forethought, I could’ve done a lot more entertaining this past year. We had gorgeous weather on Saturday, very lucky, and even though I now have a heater on my front deck, and a firepit in the backyard, there probably will soon be some limits on how much people are willing to hang out outside. We’ve had snow on Halloween some years!
But I’m hoping for another month of decent weather, so I can get in some good socializing before the snows descend and we hunker down for three months.
Maybe it’s time to host another soup exchange. 
Everyone brings soup to share, takes some away so they have a variety for the winter (ideally soups that freeze well), and we also have some hot here, with bread, for people to try while chatting outside. I think if people don’t mind using mugs as well as soup bowls, I probably have enough for thirty or so…
Pictured: egg salad sandwiches, curried mushroom sandwiches, my Star Trek captain’s tea set (a surprise Christmas present from Kevin a few years back, much loved), mimosas (your choice of mango, passionfruit, or mango-passionfruit, mixed with either prosecco or non-alcoholic ginger beer), someone’s utterly charming bicycle near my cemetery, and a nice big red pot full of tea that Lori brought all the way from Agatha Christie’s home of Greenway!
