Me on Monday (24 Aug)

... 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?

Comments

[Julie]

I absolutely can tell you're still on your friendship/connection-making high - and I'm thrilled for you!

[Fiona@StaringattheSea]

Now that sounds like a truly wonderful weekend. What an amazing set of things to have in common with Sian. I was meeting old school friends at the weekend too.

[Helen]

Have tears streaming down my cheeks......I couldn't possibly be any happier that you managed to meet!!!!! How wonderful. You've made my day!!! [Had to chuckle at all your numbers,imagining Julie's 'Month in Numbers' and had to smile at all the coincidences....and how your Dad must have loved the bakery gifts.....]....it's all *too* wonderful for words xxxx

[KJJC]

What a lovely tale of warmth and welcome. How lovely for you to finally meet a cyber friend. Welcome home to bogland though. I wondered where you were.

[Debs14]

What a fantastic weekend you had! How lovely that you and Sian got to meet up. That's an amazing amount of coincidences you both have!

[Linda]

How fab that you got to meet Sian irl! You 2 could be sisters! Glad you had a great weekend:) X

[Sian]

You are far too kind :) It was absolutely our pleasure to put the kettle on for you here and to enjoy a visit we are still talking about today (and probably tomorrow, and ..) . I'm looking forward to another meeting just as soon as we can manage it

[Cheri]

What wonderful tales of friendship and obviously mutual admiration I have read from you and Sian! So glad you were able to meet up and swap stories and spend some time together!

[Louise]

it was lovely to see you two together. Surely with all those coincidences you must be related somewhere down the line :)

[Melissa]

What a lovely weekend you had.

[Ruth]

I can just from reading this post how much you got from meeting Sian and her fabulous family. I'm so happy that you were able to get together ... And I like to think that your Dad's house was near to my grandfather's house, because that house is just down the hill and right a bit from High in the Sky.

[alexa]

Oh my goodness, Ruth, what a lot of lovely coincidences!

[Honore]

Delightful! How much fun is it to meet someone "in the real?!" Thanks ever so much for sharing that wonderrful experience and all the connections. We *are* all connected, aren't we? Glad you had such a fantastic weekend and looking forward to your sharing more of those treats from that cookbook!

Cheers~

[Jacky S]

What a wonderful visit.

[Karen Walker]

I can't imagine a more satisfying trip than the one you describe. It's so much fun to see some of my favorite bloggers together in real life! And so many connections. . . amazing!

[Julia Heald]

What a bewutiful weekend. So much to be happy about. Love to see your bakes soon!

[Mary-Lou]

What a lovely recap of your Irish visit. I have never heard of sofa farls so I will need to look that up. But yes to potato bread - it makes such wonderful toast.

[Melissa Gross]

Sounds like y'all had a lovely visit! (I'm so jealous!)

[Abi]

Oh that sounds so wonderful. I'm so jealous you got to spend time with Sian and I'm jealous that she got to spend time with you! I still treasure that day we got to meet Alexa.

[Alison]

Just catching up Alexa....it sounds as if it was a grea visit...meeting blogffriends is such a delight, I have found xx

[Missus Wookie]

What a lovely review of a lovely time away. So glad you both had fun together and were willing to share a bit of that fun with us :)

[sandie]

I feel excited for you Alexa!! How lovely to meet Sian in person and to discover so many connections. That sounds a weekend to go down in memory! I imagine meeting up with so many family members and friends filled you with stories and memory. And then you could relive it with your dad when you got home. Perfect!
Enjoy baking from your new cookbook as much as you enjoy the eating x

[Gail]

Oh what a delightful weekend that sounds. So happy you were able to meet up with Sian and here she's just like she seems on her blog.

[Jen Hart]

What a lovely meet up, fantastic for you both, I imagine it was very warm and had a rosy glow around it :)

I apologise for not visiting Alexa, I was under the impression that you weren't blogging as it wasn't coming up in my feed, but after finally losing the will with bloglovin' and deleting it and going to each blog to add them as a bookmark I found all this wonderful content, you obviously weren't in my feed after some iteration of the blinking' thing! I felt terrible for missing it and I hope you didn't wonder what had happened to my manners!

Anyway you are bookmarked now under my Inspiration tab (of course) and I shall pop round as often as I can. Warm regards, Jen :-)