Potatoes

These potatoes were grown on an allotment in Blackburn, Lancashire. The variety is "International Kidney". To tell you the truth, I had never heard of that variety before.

I received them this afternoon as a rather special gift from the long married couple who had grown them, a couple I had never met before. They are currently staying in the Peak District village of Foolow which I have mentioned several times before in this humble Yorkshire blog.

The lady is called Christina and her husband's name is Morris. We talked for three hours - both in their tiny rental cottage called "Villager Jim" and in the nearby village pub - "The Black Bull" which for a few years was called "The Lazy Landlord" before reverting back to its traditional name.

Very generously, Christina and Morris paid for my pub lunch and as I know that Christina will be reading this blogpost I want to send out a big public "THANK YOU" both for the potatoes and the lunch. It was so kind of you and quite surprising really as I previously thought that all Lancastrians were mean-spirited. There are, it seems, exceptions to every rule.

And here's the lovely connection with blogging... The only way I "knew" Christina was that she has been visiting this blog for two or three years and has often left kind, intelligent and supportive comments. She is the same when responding to other blogs too.

Today I told her that the only reason I had agreed to meet her in Foolow was her history of leaving pleasant, thoughtful comments. She seemed like a "nice" person and I was right about that. She was!

And so was her husband Morris - lovely people. It was great to get to know two "strangers" and I hope they were not disappointed with the glowering Heathcliff-like Yorkshireman in front of them.

We learnt more about our families, our histories and the things that make us tick and Christina trustingly showed me a phone picture of her much-loved 96 year old father who has had to go into residential care because of a facial cancer that weeps and seeps and threatens his life. All the more tragic because his mental faculties are as sharp as ever.

And so this is what blogging can do - bringing people together in "real" life. To tell you the truth, I am a bit nervous about in person meetings with other bloggers or blog visitors but today's happy occasion proves that such hook ups can be uplifting and good. There are far more well-meaning people in this world than ne'er-do-wells.

Now for three picture, taken outside "The Bull's Head":-