Dru, Steinbeck and the Book of Deer

Dear Juliet Just a quick and silly one as I've just woken up! Don't worry, I'm here, I'm not going anywhere (except possibly Cleethorpes), I've cut the hedge and got the photos from the last couple of trips ready to go to this photo lab near Newcastle for printing... Try and find some old and interesting photos for you now... The Natchez in New Orleans, Elvis in El Paso... Girl at the Grand Canyon, Betty Boop on Route 66... Christmas in Needles, cute one of you! I just need to wake up now... Love, James

Dear Juliet I think maybe another wave of grief has come crashing down upon your shore. It'll be all right. I'm listening if you need me. Love, James

Dear Juliet Happy Fourth of July! Here and now, I'm staying off hard politics but, only a few short months ago, I was saying I'd never go Stateside again as Trump was unfairly tightening up ESTA rules: "But (assuming this is it), I'm not going to be jumping with joy not to be going back. Not at all. This will be the sour end of a sweet and soulful thirty-five year relationship between me and the States. One in which I crossed America by Greyhound bus from sea to shining sea, stole the Enterprise in order to meet a Hollywood princess on Sunset Boulevard, saw the view from the Twin Towers, the Empire State and the Willis Tower, walked along the Grand Canyon's rim and wrote like Jack Kerouac while I was on the road. And that was hardly the half of it. I got to like Americans, and to love some of them. I defended you to your detractors and respected your traditions. But I can't square the noble words of your First Amendment with the grubby authoritarianism of your...

Dear Juliet Two appointments today, and unlike the White Rabbit, I have no pocket watch to keep time at bay! So here's a selection of photographs from a visit to the Cecil Beaton exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last December. Winter's chill had not fallen hard on London, the sky was blue, crisp and bright. I'd been to Henry Pordes and got an early edition of The Man With the Golden Gun , and over a tea and toastie at the Gallery's tearooms, heard that Beaton was the thing to see... He's chiefly famous for the Ascot scene in My Fair Lady , but also visited Hollywood and took shots of the stars:                                                                                                               ...

Dear Juliet I hope you enjoyed rereading Roses . The rangers at Point Lobos had some sort of library called a docent where volunteers train and study , I think. I sent them a copy of Drusilla's Roses two years ago. It might still be there. John Steinbeck said he left a lot of tracks. I guess I did too. I remember going back, walking on down past the monastery and its beach There wouldn't have been anything without you. All those days and miles, you and Dru walked with me too. Out of sight, out of view. Ghosts of time past and ventures new. I had the old straw hat I got in L.A. I walked down to the Point, and I thought of you. Nodded to the rangers and went through. Winding path, pine and cypress, coming to quite a salty windy view. Down to the beach, same as it had been thirteen, fourteen years ago. Chapel's grace, surf 'neath heaven, this is true. Without you, what would I do? Sit and stare at sea and shore, ponder scripture as nuns do. Remember, though, Dru loves you...

Dear Juliet I hope you're okay. Love, J.