Fireworks on July 4th, aboard Ebenezer III in San Francisco Bay.
A high point in a gloomy year
I write today at home in the Cotswolds, by a roaring fire with the rain beating down outside as if washing away the grime of the year just gone. It is a far cry from the clear skies that glittered above me as I walked Gabby on the beach in San Francisco this time last year. Much of my heart is still there, yet the green fields of England exercised too great a pull. I will frequently return to the City by the Bay, but it will never be quite the same. This autumn, when I was back in England, I received the news I had been dreading, but which I didn't think would come for a long time. Amanda, with whom I had lived and become great friends, had been suffering from cancer for several years, and in October had a bad fall that sent her into a steep decline. I flew back to see her and say farewell, and she died on November 14th, a year to the day after her beloved father. Her funeral was full of laughter and tears, as we celebrated a lady who was witty, kind, generous, brilliant, funny, irreverent and enormously good company. She and her dog Gabby made my time in San Francisco better than I could ever have imagined, and I miss her.
Me and Amanda, Christmas 2015
I would have loved to have brought Gabby home, but she is with
Amanda's family. I only wish she could understand that
I still love them, because I do!
So I begin 2017 with hope that it will bring happier times. I have started work part time for Porter Press International, a small but very high quality publishers based in a thatched Tudor barn in deepest Worcestershire, I will keep writing and pressing on with Gateway to England, getting back to the US as much as I can to alert people there to the best of British. I hold out hope of editing further editions in the series of Country Life collectors' editions, of which we have completed seven, all available to buy online from Amazon. Please purchase them and keep the bean-counters happy - there are so many more I'd love to produce! The year begins with a voyage up Baja California from Puerta Vallarta in Mexico to San Diego aboard Ebenezer, so watch this space for stories of ocean adventures...
Here's to a happy and successful New Year, and let's hope the orange one doesn't paint the White House gold!
My last proper night in San Francisco, with Francesca, Gabby, Vince,
Charles, Shannon, Amanda and our favourite dim sum
A reason to return! Autumn-hunting with the North Cotswold
Family reunited! Feasting at L'Artisan in Cheltenham
With my gorgeous godson Charlie and his sister Eleanor
Being reminded why I love England so much,
on a ride to the top of the South Downs
Cair Paravel!
Or, prosaically, Manorbier Castle in Pembrokeshire,
after a super day with the South Pembrokeshire Hunt
for Horse & Hound
The Finest View in Europe recreated aboard Jasper
on a Horse & Hound day with the Moorlands
With my old pony, a bit greyer but as loving as ever
Gabby. Miss her!
No comments:
Post a Comment