November 20

Ellie goes to school dressed as a pirate.  I wish school was this much fun when I was there.

We receive the Airbnb newsletter.  I read an article about a woman who has a beach house in California. She describes all the things she does to make her guests’ stay enjoyable.  If she finds out that it is anyone’s birthday, she leaves a cake for them and, depending on the make up and interests of the guests, she will leave different information for them: lists of things for children to do in the area, places to go walking, craft fairs and festivals.  When she found out that one of her guests made patchwork quilts, she left a flyer about a quilt show. For a couple celebrating their wedding anniversary, she left a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates and roses. All this has earned her very positive reviews and customers who return time and again.  She also sells local crafts – many of the ornaments in the beach house can be purchased and she has compiled an online shopping directory for her customers to look through.

Some of these things are a little beyond us, but I like the idea of the personal touch. Three years ago, we had an American missionary couple stay with their 90 year old mother.  Her birthday was the day after mine so we thought we would ask her up for tea and cake.  I still have a very clear image of her in my mind: she was dressed entirely in the colours of the American flag; even her earrings were small replicas of the star-spangled banner.  Despite her age, she was incredibly sharp.  She was also very pro-Trump and for the next hour and a half we heard every conspiracy theory in the book concerning Barack Obama.  I don’t think we got a word in edgeways. 

I did have plans with someone I know to put homemade soap in the bathroom with a note that more could be purchased if wanted.  The soap was made by people in a co-operative and I thought it would be a good way of promoting it, but unfortunately the project itself then folded.

The only thing I do have for sale are copies of This September Sun.  There is one copy in the cottage and my general hope is that people won’t have time to finish it and so will ask if they can buy it.  Only one copy has ever gone missing and that was with the man who helped me take frogs out of the swimming pool.  Maybe he thought it was fair payment for lobbying them over the wall.