Ambling memories.

This morning it was cloudy when I woke but during breakfast the clouds began to lift and the sun on the mountains brought out the golds and greens.  There is no smell of woodsmoke, which I used to love, but in other ways it reminds me of when I used to visit Ambleside in the Lake District, where my friend Jane used to run an Oxenden Venture hostel for Vietnamese refugees. For me it was idyllic, a mixture of visiting a friend, getting to know the Vietnamese and a beautiful location. I remember the first time I visited, walking in a seeing a man with a machete chopping up meat, to put in a pot over a gas cylinder cooker.  Once the Queen was passing near by and all of us lined the road to greet her. I swear she did a double take when she saw her latest residents and the Christmas I had there was one of the best ever.  There were about 19 of us. Jane and I, the Vietnamese and our Bhutanese friends and one of their friends, who was from Venezuela. I cooked the turkey, about the first and only time I have cooked Christmas dinner on mass, which was passable,  and the rest of the food was delicious Vietnamese food.  When it snowed, everyone rushed out to enjoy it, making me realise that if it is a cold winter here it could still be nice.

Anyway as you can see the washing has been done, it is a beautiful day here so even though I feel rather rough ( very sore throat - too much vodka or talking) so I am going out to collect somethings for an Autumn collage.