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“Ten years ago when James and Rhoda had taken
up their abode in Tassieknowe the whole house had
been redecorated: the woodwork painted white and
the walls distempered in various soft colours. Nothing
much had been done since then, so it was a trifle
shabby, but that did not seem to matter.”

-D. E. Stevenson
Bel Lamington

I took great comfort in this quote as I prepared for
Dori’s visit this week (the lovely reason I have been
quite absent here). You know how it can be before a
guest comes, especially for the first time, and especially
when you haven’t had enough spare time in the months
before to accomplish all the little things around house
and garden that you imagined you would.

But it really “does not seem to matter”. We are
picking blackberries together and watching movies
with my mother and Dori is writing down recipes
from my cookbooks and I am reading out inspiring
online things to her and we are staying up much
too late talking. It is wonderful.

And the time will soon come to talk-not of cabbages
and kings-but of little chicks and cherry crumble and
Queen Anne’s Lace. Soon, soon!