Peace and war

 We took our visitors for our favourite walk,

and then we went to Breaky Bottom vineyard

owned and run by Peter Hall, 

great nephew of Lafcadio Hearn,

a man much revered in Japan.

The vines are mostly Seyval Blanc, 

but new for 2007  is a Chardonnay 

which Peter let us taste.

Admiring the new labelling machine.

Lambs newly separated from their mothers

baahed plaintively on the sidelines.

 Toto the Bengal cat.

It couldn't have been a more perfect day 

but as we neared home 

we saw a plume of black smoke on the horizon.

I later discovered that it came from a furniture store

razed to the ground by rioters.

This shop had withstood two World Wars since

its opening in 1867.

We don't know how much our friends have understood 

about the ongoing situation.

It hasn't been referred to directly 

and we don't want to frighten the children. 

In any case, we don't have the words to explain it ourselves.

I would need the Japanese word for 'ashamed'.

Squelching

I am getting behind with these eventful days.

The photos are piling up as they tumble out of the camera.

 So here is Sunday lunch at Petersham Nurseries.

A great piece of good fortune this booking,

as they had just had a cancellation for a table for ten

and there were eight of us

happy to slide into their vacated seats.

The walk back along the river 

would have been idyllic 

had it not been for the torrential rain.

We were not adequately prepared for this.

It is hard to translate 'squelching' into Japanese.

Behind the scenes

On one of the busiest Saturdays in summer,

with Cambridge full of tourists,

but colleges closed to visitors

for restoration and decoration,

we slipped past a barrier,

(by special dispensation)

under the archway where King Henry VIII

clasps a table leg instead of a sceptre,

(removed by student pranksters and never replaced),
into Great Court,

scene of the famous run in Chariots of Fire,

then followed a porter into the silent Neville's Court.

That's the Wren library,

including among  2500 other manuscripts

 A.A Milne's original Winnie the Pooh.

We looked into the vast hall with its

hammer-beam roof and lantern

and emerged rather hastily due to a fire alarm

(toast probably)

onto the Backs.

I feel a theme tune coming on.

A tourist at home

A walk along the South Bank of the Thames,

from London Bridge via Wagamama,  Shakespeare's Globe,

St Paul's Cathedral, the 'wobbly' bridge, Tate Modern,

the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, the Royal Festival Hall

and the London Aquarium.

The queue at the aquarium finished me off 

and I dodged home at this point -

there was supper to prepare.

Roun learns to make pizza.

Acclimatising

Roun learns to make bread,

supervises the cooking of sushi rice in a borrowed rice cooker,

and then we have tuna and samphire

with wasabi butter sauce

as an East West compromise

and finish with

a tarte Tatin because everyone

likes apple pie and ice cream.

The Guest Room

...the 'chamber appointed for her nightly rest' 

in which it should be evident that 

the mistress of the house herself must have been here.

With her own hand she must have

placed upon the table the favourite toilet-cushion

worked by a friend who was alike dear to herself

and her guest.

With her own hand she must have selected the snow-white linen,

and laid out, not in conspicuous obtrusiveness

a few volumes calculated for the hours of silent meditation,

when her friend shall be alone.

From The Women of England 

by Mrs Sarah Ellis 1839.

(I shall return to the matter of a well-chosen book trough.
 I know our Japanese guests like William Morris, 
but I am not sure about their reading proficiency.)

One hundred years later the voice is much the same.
It is our firm conviction that...

the touch of the mistress is always distinguishable

from that of the maid.

Even if you do not usually attend to your own house-keeping,

you should examine the guest room before your visitor arrives

and make sure that no detail that can make for convenience

has been overlooked.

From The Pleasure of Your Company 

by June and Doris Langley Moore 1933.

We would almost lay it down as a rule that

a good hostess should occasionally spend a

night or two in her spare room, so as to acquire

a little first hand knowledge

as to the amount of comfort it provides.

It is better to err on the side of excessive consideration

than of negligence.

From Our Loving Duty 
by June and Doris Langley Moore 1936.

A few years into World War II a brisk 
and somewhat bossy tone is adopted.

And here are a few more Do's and Dont's

The four B's - Blankets, Bottle, Books and Biscuit Box.

We repeat again: Remember that other people's beds

are never as warm as your own,

so give them blankets galore and bottles in cold weather.

Give them aspirins too in case they cannot sleep (!) because

a) Your bed is too lumpy

b) Your bed is not as lumpy as the one they are used to at home.

The tin of biscuits is always useful if they cannot sleep.

The chewing of its contents, someone explained recently to us

will change their blood currents, or change something-

-or-other, in case the blood-or-something

is in the wrong part of their body-or-something,

thus preventing sleep.

(We hope this is not too technical for you.)

Give them writing paper in their rooms.

It is very awkward for even the most hardened sinner

to write and abuse you to their friends

if they are eating your salt right under your nose,

or sharing a chesterfield with you in the drawing room.

If you are entertaining older people and have no fitted basin
in the room, do give them a toilet set.
One's mothers and aunties hate rushing along cold passages
to the bathrooms with their teeth out
and their hair screwed up.
It is no romance to them to meet the owner on the way
however beautiful their kimono.

To look in vain for a waste -paper-basket,
to find cigarettes but no ashtray or matches,
to open drawers and wardrobe
and discover that they are filled with
someone else's belongings,
to wake up thirsty in the night
and find the carafe empty,
are common but exasperating experiences.
You will also supply a table or desk
well stocked with writing materials,
a good reading lamp, an armchair
and a small choicely filled bookshelf -
such luxuries are neither elaborate nor costly,
but they give physically and mentally,
a sense of ease.
(They haven't finished yet.)
The inkwell should not be dry, the pens must write,
the blotting paper clean, the rattling window wedged,
the key must lock the door, curtains wide enough
and heavy enough to keep out light, 
a wax candle provided for the wakeful or nervous guest
if your electricity goes off at night.
Place lavender sachets under pillows
and in linen cupboards.


From The Family Weekend Book by Beryl Irving 1941.

And finally from Jane Eyre 
by Charlotte Brontë 1847,
preparations for a house party at Thornfield:


Thursday came: all work had been completed the previous evening;
carpets were laid down, bed-hangings festooned,
radiant white counterpanes spread,
toilet-tables arranged, furniture rubbed,
flowers piled in vases:
both chambers and saloons looked as fresh and bright
as hands could make them.

Respite

A moment in the swing seat 

shaded

by a silver birch.