Pictures, You Need Pictures: Part 1: London and Just Outside of London

First of all, when I was planning this trip, my friend Sarah who hosted me asked me what I wanted to see. I told her that I wasn't interested in the royals or jewels, but I wanted to see Blake's drawings and watercolors at the Tate. THERE WAS A BLAKE RETROSPECTIVE AT THE TATE MODERN.

What are the chances?

 I might have geeked out seeing so much Blake in one place.

And the people in London were exceptionally London-like.

The show was so overwhelming that we went out into the country the next day. The country estate we visited was EXACTLY what I imagined the country to be like.  The house itself was old and shabby inside, and to be honest, I don't care much for fancy houses except the downstairs. I'm a downstairs kind of person, I declared. Sarah said that she would feel quite at home in charge. I imagined myself as Jane Eyre. Truly.

Did anyone else pretend that you were Jane Eyre, a poor orphan put upon by wicked relatives?

When we went to the "walled garden," I was Mary in "The Secret Garden." I realized how much these places lived in my imagination, put there by books and poems in a lifetime of reading. The apple orchard smelled like apples, something I bet you haven't really smelled in America unless you've been to one.

 Friends for more than 35 years, Sarah took complete and total care of me. Honestly, I was in a bit of a jet-lagged daze, and I vaguely remember having a bit of a mini, silent tantrum walking in the rain (Sarah agreed that I was quite a weather wimp), but she and her beautiful family.restored me. I am so very grateful for these dear and beautiful women friends I made so long ago.

Those are apples on the ground, and they smelled like apples.

Have you had enough?

Because there were sheep, too.

To top it all off, we went to a pub afterward and had beer with STEVE REED, my blogger friend that I've "known" for nearly ten years.

Honestly, it felt like Steve was someone I'd known for real for many years. We talked about books and Brexit (I still don't what the hell Brexit is and why it even happened in the first place, but then again, who the hell knows why we have Trump, either, and how the hell that happened) and movies and laughed and had such a good time.

Stay tuned for Part 2: London and then Part 3: Rome

When We Were Us

Despite the glorious blustery day, I'm a tad melancholy. My friend Sarah left this afternoon, and I was sad to see her go. We went to college for four years in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and have probably only seen one another five times since we graduated in 1985, but all those years melted away this past week as she accompanied me around Los Angeles in my normal daily routines. We just as well could have been lying on our respective beds doing homework or leaning in together as we walked down a path to a class or quizzing each other on French idiomatic expressions before an exam. I am struck by how essential old friends, true, deep friends are to me -- there's something so profound and comforting about talking to a person whom I knew and who knew me before the me that is now.  I loved the Sarah I knew thirty plus years ago, and I love the woman she's become and am grateful to have had these days with her.

Homeschool Substitute Teacher Day

That lovely lady is one of my oldest friends, Sarah, who has lived in Paris (yes, that Paris) for the last 25 years with her Parisian husband and their three children. She is visiting California this week and stopped to stay with us for three days. One of the reasons I haven't been around to visit your blogs or even to update mine is because Sarah and I can talk for hours. Hours and hours and hours. The only way we break up the talk is by laughing at something we're talking about. Right now, I've snuck away for a moment to come here, and Sarah is teaching a writing lesson to Oliver in my stead. Sarah is an accomplished journalist, so Oliver is learning from a master. I don't know how long I can stay away from her, though, before intruding for some more conversation and laughter.