Day 623: A Banquet of Friends

Look at this sweet fruit!

Macarena was a delicious, juicy pleasure to behold and be held by. Clever clever clever clever and discerning and listeny, direct and flowing. She filled me up with nutritious wonderfulness. She was a gift. 

Sweet, rich angel Ruth made her music, and she blew me away, with that and with her playful loveliness before. Eddie was magnificent as always (Ruth's apt word) and I loved seeing his rapt attention on her every breath as he drummed for her. Poetry, that was, written by two sweethearts, sweet hearts. 

Look at these lovely faces!

Each one of these fine friends is a pleasure through and through. All together (especially as they now know and like each other), they fed me so much fuller than any meal. And still I caught my train and was (almost) in bed before midnight.  

And oh, those pond ladies! About 45 of them on Halloween morning, in hats and costumes, bearing pumpkins, waffles and sweet roasted potatoes (like little eyeballs, warm and giving between teeth). There were spiders and cobwebs, shivering and so much laughter. There was hooting and howling. There was bobbing and scaring. I did quite a lot of the scaring in my very pleasing, very terrifying rubber mask. I swam at a couple of ladies while wearing it. Unsurprisingly, they swam away. 

Doing scaring

There was tea and there were buns and fruit. There was conversation between people I've seen time after time, but never together, and lots of new people too. Beautiful artist Jane (who I'm scaring in the picture) made a wonderful tree-bark hat. Full up with love and warmth and affection, despite so much cold water. 

Next, a dose of (Esther) Lilley Harvey and her beautiful Tulsichild. We drove, we walked, we had a go on dogs, we played, we talked, we read, we ate toast. It was short and very sweet indeed. Nourished again. And then...

A tasty little Ned-hit. Ned who I haven't seen since, what, late August? Ned who showed me the building site that is the house he's bought to renovate, explaining this trench and that brickwork, this structural wall, those beams. I even got to go on the scaffolding! I loved the whole experience. I'm just a little disappointed that I missed the 'constructive destruction' phase. You can't beat a swinging mattock, in my opinion (makes me think of you, Clubba Hollenbaugh - you gave me a birthday mattock all those years ago - only a true friend would know to do that!).

I am a creature equipped
with a mattock. + 1! 

Lunch at a Portuguese cafe delivered rich conversation and chips like you have never tasted in your life - fat, hot, crispy and floury soft on the inside. Thank God for Ned and his help - I'd have made myself ill with eating them if he hadn't taken a few off my hands. Oddly easy, the whole experience, and very pleasing indeed. All this wrapped up with a dose of dancing, coaching Geneva Kim. Mmmmmmm. A girl can't take much more goodness in one day. 

And oh, to Saturday. More cold, crisp water and upside-down ducks and shouting gulls and blipping fish. And then work in Rustique, where I bumped into an old yoga friend, first met in the Austrian mountains. I had a surprise date with Libby's lovely boyfriend, Doug, who turned up too to talk shelving. It's ending in bikes and dinner (all of us, not just me and him!). 

Bleeeeeeeeeeeeesed

And then... Ruth and Pam and Rob and Greg and Aristotle and me! A dinner party. I hate dinner parties, but we did one and I loved it. All those beloved people in one place doing that thing where everything becomes bigger than any of the relationships I have with any of them (and I find it delightful that I do have relationships with each one separately - they are all people I adore). Phew! Rich times. And today, just me and the pond, then J, Emily, Greg, Will Steele, hopefully Macarena before the day is out. 

I've had conversations recently with people who have the experience of spending time with friends (or acquaintances) they don't really click with. Fuck me, I'm lucky and blessed that the people I have in my life are really lovely. The only challenge is finding enough time to spend with all of them, and the fact that many are relatively far away. And still, if there was ever a second of doubt, ever ever, I am truly, richly blessed. 

MATTOCK! (I really do love a mattock)