Jane, known to all as 'Blondie' from Blondie's Journals, and I have blogged and followed each other for many years. When she told me that she and 'The Husband' would be visiting Asheville again this Spring I was thrilled to think we could meet again for a second time. Then, the sad news came that they would be there when we were off on a trip overseas. There was no way we could drive west to the North Carolina mountains and be back in time to fly east to catch our boat!
The good news followed later…they were driving to Asheville from Washington D.C. and would stop in several beautiful Virginia spots along the way, and then spend an overnight in Raleigh so that we could get together for dinner.
We are in disarray while preparing to venture forth on another Cunard 'Queen' very soon - more on that later! However, some quick cleaning, Jane you've no idea what got stuffed behind closet doors, fresh flowers from Trader Joe's, early Saturday morning baking and cream whipping, and we were prepared for a fun evening yesterday.
Following dinner out - pic via the wait person - we came back to the cottage. Although dark, it was a perfect evening, warm and apparently mosquito free as we toured the garden a bit, then sat inside and chatted about all and sundry while enjoying dessert and coffee.
The time flew by much too quickly. We exchanged 'blog gifts'. The four of us get along famously. The husbands have much in common, and of course Jane and I found more than enough to chat about - bloggers were your ears burning? Don't worry we were nice!
Pic via Bob
My really beautiful gift from Jane - a wonderful 'teatime recipe book' with fabulous recipes from the world's best tearooms, with a classical music CD to play at teatime. I really love this - it has many of my favorite pieces of relaxing music - in fact I'm playing it now and it's breakfast time, and I may just play again at lunch time, and I've added it to my iTunes on the MacBook so I can travel with it too! Jane is great at choosing perfect gifts - thank you dear friend.
Enjoy the remainder of your trip Jane and A. Hug those Asheville gals for me please, and tell them I hope to catch up with them this Summer!
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Tomorrow, being a busy day of celebration, I will not be posting here.
Wishing each of you a great holiday, and please, in between the eating, drinking,
fun with family and friends, remember the meaning of this very special day.
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