... though it has slid (bother, work!) into Tuesday. As I sip my morning tea in the late summer sun, I am still mentally miles away 'across the water', after three wonderfully full days over the weekend in the land of my birth. It was a flight-taking, car-hiring, map-reading, rolling west over lush green fields under huge sky-scapes sort of a weekend; a visiting-a-poorly-aunt in hospital, catching up with thirty-one of my aunts, uncles and cousins, a reunion of two dozen class-mates from when we all started secondary school together fifty years ago sort of an occasion. And the brightest of hours? Being warmly welcomed by the lovely Sian From High in the Sky in person ...
Being treated to coffee with the charming Accountant and the delightful Not-So-Small-One, by a much-loved scrapbooker whose endlessly varied and beautiful pages regularly inspire sighs of appreciation (and not a little envy!) on my part ... it really doesn't get any better than this! Truly wonderful. But of course, you know all that :). So what can I tell you that you might not know? Well, Sian is every bit as fine-boned and petite as her photos show, and her voice is soft and lilting with an accent that I could feel returning to my own speech from childhood as we talked together. She has a way with words that sparkles not only in writing, and a warmth and lively interest in you that makes you feel special :).
So how did we fill our time? We swapped stories, of course, marvelling at the synchronicities: Sian's Mum and my aunt have just been in the same hospital; Sian trained as a librarian and so did my Mum; both our fathers were teachers; my Dad went to the same school as Sian's Mum, and he lived in a little terraced house (just like the one in the card Sian so thoughtfully gave me) not so far from the lovely tall house we were sipping our coffee in ... And he was thrilled on my return with the delicious gifts of sofa farls and potato bread from Sian, made in the bakery he knew himself as a child. Not that he's going to have to wait for another visit - do you see that recipe book I am holding carefully up above? Wheaten bread, page 23; soda farls page 141 ... It's going to be a busy baking autumn!
And there you have it: a truly wonderful weekend of reconnecting with old friends, much-loved family, and making a new and much-admired friend-in-person. Here's to the next time, Sian - and thank-you so much again... Wishing you all a lovely start to the week - can you tell I am still high on happiness?
