Monday, August 20, 2012

A traditional...

... gathering at the seaside. Staying with friends for a couple of days...swimming, sailing, cycling into the village to buy ice-creams. We ate at a long table set up in the garden, three generations and a mix of cousins and friends and godparents and uncles and aunts. Over the weekend, two young cousins were recieving their First Holy Communion in the local church, and there was much last-minute sewing of white dresses and discussion about lunch arrangements...it sent me back in memory to my own First Communion years and years ago. In a Britain where so much has changed, this hasn't changed. One 21st-century development:  the traditional illuminated certificates had the children's names, dates etc added in beautiful lettering by computer...

Hauling in the boat after sailing, we were waist deep in the water. Some one shouted and then suddenly waters were whooshing and closing over my head -  and as I came up for breath I suddenly realised what the shout had been : "Big wave!"

Home, and the London suburbs drowsy in the heat. Catching up with work on the computer, I come across this book and its successor.   The idea that things will always go on just as they always have done is illusory. And changes don't always come as big waves.

1 comment:

Di said...

Sounds wonderful and so very British.....I'll have to clamp down on jealousy as it rears its ugly head!