DESK TRAVELING

In the past few days, I’ve just been hanging back, hanging out---just looking in and refraining from posting much. The two pieces posted here since my return were cobbled from bits which I’d just doodled down in the past---just little memories of things and fragrances and and tastes, childhood remembrances, the feel of the air’s flush moisture in the Summer shade.

I’ve just been looking in on old friends, new sites, unknown treasures, through other sites, following the bricks and steppingstones laid down from place to place, through the recommendation of one I know, to one I regret that I didn’t know sooner, to another whose bright chirpy joy and colors lure me in to the young family activities, or a smooth glimpse of crafts and travels and books and lifestyles and colors past numbering.

And some of you list Lawn Tea in your own sidebars. That’s one of the loveliest compliments I can think of---the sharing of a blog that you like well enough to recommend it to your own readers.

I look down the Feed-line, to the names of the places from which you venture in, and the names are a pleasure to read---bright flags of quite a few nations shining in the far margin, and just in the past few days, such lovely words as Alexandria and Gastonia, Berea and Killeen and Aurora, Calabria and Lilburn and Windermere appear, all seeming like fanciful Kingdoms in a Fairy book.

Good old solid names of places like Black Oak and Eads, Dothan and Winona, Durham, Franklin, Burnaby and Chesapeake; the refreshing thoughts of Big Spring and Destin and Tallahassee. I love the thoughts of Bucharest and Richmond and Vicksburg, the whimsical unknown of Show Low and Fallentimber, the delightful escape of Lyon, Rhone Alpes, with its conjure of lovely vistas and wonderful markets.

One visitor came in on a trail which I did not recognize, and I clicked it, to find a link to my friend Lucy in Lyon, with an unexpected little notation in her own list of favorites:

It is with great relish that I share Rachel's site with you. She spins a web of home and happiness, silver linings, interesting observations, and good storytelling.

What a lovely compliment from a blogger I admire and enjoy so much. And every day here is a great compliment---the faithful readers who simply pass through, those whose city appears with the regularity of meeting old friends, and those who comment either often or seldom---I appreciate YOU ALL.

I wish you all a wonderful, safe, happy weekend.