Thursday, February 19, 2009

Faces to love.


Overwhelmed with happiness, to have been away and to have returned. And with gratitude and delight at all your wonderful comments, thank you so much.

So much to enjoy, review, share, where to start. So, to be going on with, a collage of faces, shuffled until an arrangement came up I was vaguely happy with. Left to right from top left, and of course it will blow up bigger.

1. Tall Girl and L. 'You always do that funny thing thing with your chin in photographs, don't you Polly?' said L, helpfully. I don't think she's doing it here though. First time I've seen them at home in Yorkshire. Marvellous. More to come on that I think.

2. Kiwi nephew, otherwise known as Elf and Cherub to his indulgent aunties, he doesn't seem to mind. Currently en route from India to Spanish Galicia, doing his doctorate in hippy studies. 'Tis a pretty sprig.

3. Carved wooden green mannish ornament on a house wall, Thaxted.

4. Lovely Sister and Zig.

5. Blue, Cat of Mystery.

6. Statuary, Somerset House, London. Wandering about trying not to be too early to meet Joe, who was also wandering about somewhere in the vicinity.

7. Ziggy, Cat of Very Little Mystery.

8. Roof boss, Thaxted church.

9. Lovely Sister and Kiwi Nephew, former wearing false ears belonging to the latter. He carries them about while doing travelling, as an aid to communication.

10. Darling Tall Girl. I've known her since I was just a little bitty thing, and she was quite a tall bitty thing. I really love her.

11. Lovely Sister being mugged by Zig.

12. L, thriving on retirement. I really love her too.

13. Joe. He said he'd frankly rather visit the dentist than have his photo taken, so I made it quick while he wasn't looking. I said I thought if I'd seen him in the street outside (while we were both wandering about separately trying not to be too early) I probably wouldn't have known him. But then there was that feeling of 'well, of course it's you.' Now his appearance, even with the photo, is breaking up in my memory again, yet there are aspects of our meeting, moments, which are still very much there on a quite other level. He's said it better here.

14. Angel, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, more on which later too. I met quite a few angelic beings, but this one wasn't flesh and blood.

15. Statuary, Somerset House. Looks a bit like I felt before I went away.

16. As 4 and 11.


I stocked up on liquorice allsorts, Harvey's Bristol Cream in the blue bottle and paperbacks at the airport. Molly gave me a good slurp at when she saw me again then stuck her nose straight in the bag with the liquorice allsorts. Her ordeal is, we hope, nearly over now. Tom took me out to dinner in Lamballe on the way home, and, nearly as good, had cleaned the fridge and taken the recyclables to the Ecopoint.

My cup runneth over. It quite often does.

21 comments:

Dave King said...

There are times, aren't there when the world is just great and it's just great to be in it?

Unknown said...

You, paparrazo, you! I wouldn't have recognised the photograph if were not for the written post. But what fun! Especially to be included in such a distiguished collage.

tristan said...

home again, home again, jiggety jig !

Anonymous said...

Wonderful collage of photos, words and love, Lucy! Glad your trip was fantastic and such a wonderful homecoming too.

Rosie said...

hurrah to be home- and hurrah to have gone

jzr said...

I love these faces, especially #15! Now that is someone having a bad day!! Glad you had a grand trip and welcome home again.

vicki johnson said...

Life is good
Welcome Home!

herhimnbryn said...

A beautiful mosaic of loved ones Lucy.

Welcome home.

PS a Man that cleans the fridge is a keeper:)

Michelle said...

Welcome back, Lucy.

We missed you!

Michelle said...

Welcome back, Lucy.

We missed you!

HLiza said...

Yeah..it's good to be away with loved ones, and to be back greeted with warmth and slurps..by more loved ones..!

Lee said...

Welcome home. Love the montage and its commentary.

Roderick Robinson said...

Got the captions mixed up. Thought No. 13 was statuary at Somerset House. Liked the incipient flower; it's probably a lobelia (the only flower name I know).

Rouchswalwe said...

Here's raising a mug of ale to your safe return! Prosit!

Pam said...

What a lovely lot of photos and how intriguing to see Tall Girl and L. Don't they look nice?

Pam said...

What a lovely lot of photos and how intriguing to see Tall Girl and L. Don't they look nice?

Pam said...

Twice as nice as you thought...

Zhoen said...

I love Blue:Cat of Mystery.

Very glad you had a good time, and are now back, refreshed.

Lucas said...

Delightfulcats! So nice to think of you in London.

Anonymous said...

Oooh I'd have my nose in your bag if you had liquorice allsort in there. Can you not get those in France? How dire!

Glad you are back and pleased you had a lovely time.

Tall girl - I wonder if anyone calls me that?

Bee said...

What a lovely and original way to capture some of the highlights of your visit to England. I was particularly intrigued by the idea of a doctorate in "hippy studies" (now what could that be?), the liquorice allsorts (just for Molly?) and your description of meeting Joe. It is always strange to meet someone that you know quite well in some ways, but not at all in others.

My husband also cleaned out the refrigerator (and my car) when I was away.