Tourist guide and archivist.

I had two American ladies and a lovely Argentinian gentleman visiting over the weekend. Much as I like my solitude it is always good to show people around this area. It forces me out to view the places I don't go to on my own any more because I have 'done' them in the past. The friend who stayed with me (the other two are a recently married couple and they went to a B&B) was of the Happy Snapper breed. She took at least 100 photos in the space of three days, possibly more. More or less nothing went un-snapped. As she had been in Britain for 28 days, snapping everything, she is going to have a very busy time, home in San Diego, sorting through them all. In the same amount of time I took three photos, but no doubt will have others sent to me in due course. The weather was very April - spring showers breaking into brilliant sunshine. We dodged in and out with the sun.

The reason for the trip was to visit the place Susie's mother Frances spent so much time, the F. Foundation. The first of these photos is of the quiet garden and sanctuary where Chloë and I scattered some of Frances's ashes. The second is of Susie and Cathie in front of the first whisky barrel house.

Sanctuary and Quiet Garden

OK, the blog in its wisdom has turned them around.... you get the picture....

Susie, rather disturbingly, brought me a small stack of letters I had written to her Mom. Truth to tell I had almost forgotten I ever wrote letters. It feels archaic in this day of emails, Tweets and Facebook. Also there's the guilty feeling about not having any to show her from her Mom but I've moved a lot and things have been jettisoned or mislaid. 

I was very afraid of reading them - I've never liked being plunged back into the past. This morning I braced myself. Some were as I had feared, quite depressing because I was depressed when I wrote them. Some were much more cheery and informative. I found myself enjoying them. If I had realised I would read them 12 (and even some 20 years) later I might have written more. 

This blog has been a way of writing letters, mostly to myself. A friend has suggested I sew some together, figuratively speaking, and publish them one way or another. Probably just gathering them up and printing them out for my even older age would do.

It's a thought. 

Memo to self after editing this....Please learn to check before clicking and it's about time you learned the difference between 'where' and 'were.'