Welcome Home!

I have already blotted ink all over this page before I’ve begun. Alas, such is life these days. I suppose my writing here warrants some kind of explanation or introduction, but as I’m pressed for time I hope I’ll be forgiven if I do it only briefly. I’m Anne, and have been keeping house at Patty’s Place during the recent absence of her usual residents. (I do feel the need to refer to this house with a feminine pronoun–”it” sounds altogether unsuitable for a place so full of welcoming personality.) I live not too far from this dear place, and am very fond of dropping in for a visit on occasion.

Any road, here I sit in the parlour, amid the merry chaos of welcoming the adventurers home. I have secured a promise that details of their travels will be forthcoming as soon as the tea table has been laid, for truly, one cannot expect a lady to launch into a narrative before she’s had some madeleines, cucumber sandwiches, and (my personal favourite) strawberries and clotted cream.

All has been well here in your absence, my dear friends, and though I have been madly dashing back and forth between various engagements and rehearsals for the Shakespearean Festival, I have still found time to water Grace’s geraniums (how I wish mine at home would thrive as yours do!), give all the rooms a good airing (which is to say that upon one evening during a summer rain I threw the windows and doors all open to let the glorious scent of it soak the air inside), play a very little on Rissa’s piano (you must give me some Beethoven now that you’re home), and make excellent use of both the bookshelves and the teacups. I have also made the acquaintance of the White Lady in the garden; one evening at twilight she was strolling pensively among the roses and I happened upon her before she went out through a gate that is no longer there.

I shall put down this pen, now, though I’ve barely had a chance to begin–the tea kettle is singing!