A Cambanella Sunday. Bill and Jane arrive with Maureen in the car. She’s in the process of moving from Cyprus back to England, planning to rent an apartment in Deal, Kent, on the southeast coast. Current difficulty being to find one that allows her to keep her cat. This could be a farewell meal for Maureen, but is also a belated birthday dinner as she turned eighty on Friday. Jane has brought her a pin to wear that says I am eighty. M puts it on, but seems less than enthusiastic about making the announcement. Not a lot of people in the restaurant, though, so no real threat of congratulations and song.
Cypress trees usually stand neatly to attention, tall and slim and controlled. Seems this may depend on trimming, though. The one outside Cambanella’s always looks less on guard and more like it’s practising semaphore. Letter unknown. Any semaphore I may have learned now decades in the past.
CJ Sansom’s Dissolution is our new light read aloud book. Historical mystery set in the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. Author has a PhD in history and has also been a practising solicitor, and the expertise shows. Happily, this book is the first of a series of (so far) five, and he has other historical mysteries as well, so future pleasures await. Unusual in my circles, online and in real life, for being a Scot who is passionately against Scottish independence. Can hear my cousin saying oh well, we won’t hold that against him. Or maybe not - he’s pretty passionate himself.