Mary and Jeremy visit

  

Jeremy pondering bees

      Now that we are both in our sixties, it doesn't seem quite right to describe Mary as "my oldest friend".  However,  we have been friends since we were 16.  She  cut the cord when my son David was born.  Her husband Jeremy is dear and thoughtful, one of my best sources for new ideas and analyses.  We had a fine time together when they visited last week.
     Jeremy is a beekeeper and an expert on honeybees.  The first thing he saw when he stepped into our back yard was a swarm of bees in our dogwood tree.  I tried to convince him that I had cued the special effects in order to give him a grand welcome.
        We toured the Rhododendron Garden and the Japanese Garden, and Mary did prodigious work in our garden.  Jeremy fixed our broken lamps.

Mary

View from our guest room

  
    Sheila came for a walk and tea.  Betsy and Les invited us for coffee in their 23rd- floor aerie with their spectacular city views. We had such engrossing conversations that none of us wanted the morning to end.

Author and Powell's Espresso book machine

    At Powell's City of Books, we witnessed an example of the revolution in publishing when we saw a demonstration of their new print-on-demand book machine.  The machine prints the pages, cuts and collates them, prints the cover, and binds the book, all in about ten minutes.  The author was hovering around, as anxious and then as proud as the mother of a new baby.

Joyful Lois signing books

Clowning around at the party

     My friend Lois Leveen's new book, The Secrets of Mary Bowser, was  published on May 15 the traditional way, by HarperCollins. It is fiction based on the true story of Mary Bowser, a former slave who returned to Richmond to spy for the Union by pretending to be an enslaved maid working in the Confederate White House. Jeremy, Mary and I  were part of the packed house at Powell's on Friday night when  Lois read from her book. We then made a brief stop at a party honoring Lois.

At the Japanese Garden

      All too soon, Mary and Jeremy left to go home to their grandchildren and their honeybees in Pennsylvania.  Such good times with good friends!