Sunday, April 26, 2009

OF MEETING NEW FRIENDS, AND ENJOYING THE WARMTH

Last evening was an unexpected joy when we drove to Amagansett to meet with four people (one of them ten weeks old!) and a pointer, with whom we had never met and were therefore complete strangers.  But only in one sense removed, because Charles* engineered the meeting, and he is the brother of Robert, with whom I have served both at sea and at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, England, where we were almost next-door neighbors.  (For information, Robert is the Executive Officer of HMS ARK ROYAL, the British aircraft strike carrier, due to visit New York this summer.  He and his wife will hopefully be brief houseguests if we can work out the logistics.) 


The strangers were Richard and Charlie, and their baby daughter "Liv." (After all of this I will be baptizing her in August.  What fun!)  Charlie grew up in Stockholm, and is delightfully, charmingly Scandinavian, and Richard, now a senior president with Credit Suisse in Manhattan, served a short commission in the British Army (and we have a few Bosnia-Herzegovina war places and memories in common - even if I was there before him!)  A great meeting up, with probably far too much wine, but forever friends made.


In case none of you followed that short tale, today was much simpler.  It was hot.  The first day for me to wear shorts since last October on the Cape.  Therefore not a pretty sight!  But an afternoon to simply "potter" around the garden, snipping here and there, and then starting the long-overdue overseeding of the lawns. 


Also our first meal outside this year.  Nothing too complicated.  Schmidt's (Southampton) ground beef, which is quite superb, made the hamburgers.  Served with a salad of grilled eggplant, red pepper and red onion dressed in feta cheese, steamed broccoli and (naturelment!) a few french fries! Spectacular!


*As a footnote, Charles and I "met" over Facebook because of my connection to his brother.  Facebook is great fun.  Don't dismiss it!

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