Kindness of neighbours and friends (some of them new)

Our next door neighbours have been such a blessing. In the first few weeks it was hard to find the things I was looking for in the grocers. I had asked my neighbour about where I could buy fast-acting yeast. The next day she was over with some for me. I had borrowed some cinnamon to make cinnamon buns and gave her some to taste. A few days later she was over with 2 bottles of cinnamon for me. Her sister (from whom I borrowed the Toyota sewing machine) was over for tea and, in the conversation, she asked if I liked to knit. Three days later her sister brought over a big ball of wool, a pattern for easy slippers and some knitting needles. That was very kind of her. What made me smile was that the wool was a very bright pink. Her sister said that the choice was very limited: either a dull grey or the pink. Her sister said, “G is such a cheerful person; I’m sure that she will want the pink.” I knit them up that evening and told R that I will wear them with pride and celebrate pinkness! The parents of the man from whom we are renting the house have also been very helpful as we settle in our new home. She has brought over baking pans etc. which I have really appreciated. (She said that she doesn’t bake any more so I was welcome to use them—seems like a common theme. Every time I bake something and take it to the neighbours they are surprised that it was homemade. They say that they just buy theirs at the bakery. R and I enjoy playing Scrabble but had looked for a long time for a game and couldn’t find one. We mentioned it to our landlord’s parents and they must have remembered because just the other day they brought over one they had got from their friends.

R’s cousin’s daughter and 3 of her friends stayed with us for a few days while they visited Northern Ireland. We really enjoyed having them here. A couple of weeks after their visit a big parcel was delivered to our door. It was from Canada, and contained a wonderful array of items that are impossible to find in Northern Ireland: maple syrup, Kraft peanut butter, Chipit chocolate chips, maple leaf-shaped maple cookies and homemade Nanking cherry jelly. What a wonderful surprise! And then, when we looked at the parcel, we realized that she had spent $92.00 to send it. Her kindness overwhelms us.