Sorry to hear you will be away, again, Peter. One of my proudest moments of distinction with my youngest daughter, was when we were driving home one day after school. She was at that age when nothing a parent does is cool.

We'd just moved back to Wyoming and were living in a subdivision, which to us was anathema. As we drove by each house, she told me she loved the way I had old, need-to-be-redone mismatched antiques, hand-me-downs, and collectibles somehow put together in a unique and comfy way, especially when she compared what it looked like through our front window to the cookie cutter clones up and down our street.

I didn't know it until I moved back here, but what I was striving for was the same look an old family friend here has always had. She lives in an old stage coach stop log house, yep, the real McCoy, chock full of incredible antiques, prints, etc.

When I went back to visit her for the first time in many, many years, it struck that my little girlself had taken it all in and loved it so much, that when we moved away when I was only eight, I retained all of those images and have been trying to replicate that "comfort" every since.

Fare well and fare safe, Peter,

kat