Miniature horses... 1950s diner... BlueBell ice cream.

We had a leisurely breakfast in the dining room this morning with my two cousins--- fresh eggs from my chickens, and fresh bagels from NY. They both said the guest cottage is a special retreat and a special treat...... they slept so well that they never heard the coyotes howling in the middle of the night after the sound of the train whistle echoed through the hills.

We brought my cousins to the BlueBell ice cream factory... took the tour to see what flavors of ice cream were being made early this afternoon (strawberry, vanilla, birthday cake swirl, and vanilla ice cream sandwiches). Of course, after you finish the tour, you get a scoop of whatever flavor you like in their old fashioned ice cream parlour.

After that, we went to the Monastery of St. Clare-- the nuns there have been raising miniature horses for years. So very cute.... and my cousin L reminded me that I have plenty of room on the property for such a little horse (she must have been talking to either our friend V or our Miss C, both of whom are practically begging us to get a miniature horse). But the only things we walked away with were postcards of the chapel and the monastery property, and tiny ceramic angels made and painted by the nuns.

For a late lunch, we went to the Southern Flyer Diner..... the 1950s-style diner that's next to a small airport for private planes. My husband and I have been there before..... cute little juke-boxes on each table... three 1950s/1960s songs for a quarter..... and there's always planes taking off and landing while you're sitting there as the waitresses are scurrying back and forth in their poodle skirts and saddle shoes.

By that time, we were all walked-out..... so back we came to the house and I gave my cousins our own little tour of the guest rooms above the barn, which they hadn't seen yesterday. We spent the afternoon sitting on the porch and talking...... then we came inside for tea.... and spent the rest of the night sitting in the dining room and talking. After the late lunch, no one was really in the mood for a big dinner, so we just picked on left-overs and had tea and fruit and the Italian cookies that A picked up on her way to the airport in NY yesterday.

Sitting in the dining room and talking for all that time reminded us of being in my grandparents' house...... everyone either sat around the kitchen table or around the dining room table, talking for hours and hours, while all the furniture in the living room stood there empty. We all knew that moving from one room to another would break up the conversation..... disrupt the flow. The kitchen or the dining room was the place to be for any and all lengthy discussions.

These last two days have gone by so quickly..... the next two days will disappear in a heartbeat. My cousin A has been reading the travel brochure on our town, picking out things that her husband and children would like to see........ she will be back soon, she says, and I believe her. My cousin L doesn't travel very often these days, and the older she gets, the less she wants to be away from home. But while she's here, she is sleeping well, not stressing out, not worrying about anything at all, not even the political news that she follows religiously. She hasn't even watched five minutes of TV since she's been here, nor has she listened to the radio. (She has barely even looked at a clock.) L has, however, looked up at the zillions of stars, she watched the horses in the field across the road, she has smiled at my chickens and laughed as they come running across the yard when I call them.

And now L understands why I enjoy this "life in a bubble," as she calls it. And I'm betting that when it comes time to leave for the airport, L is going to be very sad to be leaving this happy little bubble.