A True Hospitality House

There is a place called Hospitality Lane, in California. It is my brother-in-law's favorite spot to cruise and to find just the right tasty place to eat. It is just chalk full of choices, and behind every entrance there are menus and smiles of welcome. Of course, the smiles could be because they want your money. But hey. Who can argue with a smile?

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Hospitality. It's what I have been shown in mega-bunches since I alighted from darling Amtrak yesterday. Two cousins with a lovely house containing 'guest quarters'. For me! A puffy and adorable double bed, the most comfortable and soft and fluffy bed ever slept in. Pillows galore. A bedside lamp with stages of brightness. An en suite filled with anything a guest could possibly need or want. I didn't have to bring:

• a blow dryer
• a tooth brush
• toothpaste
• shampoo
• conditioner
• lotions
• hair bands

It was all there, ready and waiting just for me. I was given fresh coffee each morning, coffee of the highest quality brewed to perfection. And maybe my favorite discovery was a large glass container of (are you ready for it?) M&M's!!! Plain AND Peanut, resting there on the kitchen counter, suggesting I take a handful. Say.no.more.

And then, the food! Homemade and hot and delicious at the cousins' home, and again homemade and hot and delicious at the nephew's home. Darling small grand-nieces and grand-nephews bobbing up and down, rolling around with (huge) dogs, and an aunt, and uncle, and Mother. Everybody had huge smiles plastered on their faces. Even the dogs.

I had just read something in the book September about Hospitality, and how you recognize it. Noel Keeling was a Brit, visiting a colleague in the United States. The home was large and convenient and centrally heated (unimaginable to a Brit at that time) and should have been wonderfully comfortable. The only trouble was that the hostess "hadn't the first idea about having guests to stay. Despite the fact that she was possessed of an all-singing, all-dancing kitchen, she never cooked."

Much more was said about this distressing situation, but the moment I closed the book and walked off that train, all thoughts of Hospitality became terrifically positive. I was inundated by the stuff.

It's one of the ways we show love. Isn't it? I hope so. I hope you are shown lots of it whenever you go visiting. Wouldn't it be painful to arrive somewhere and find the door locked? the residents scowling? the dogs troublesome and disagreeable? Hm. 

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Such a thing hardly bears thinking about. Luckily I don't have to think about it. I can lay here in this soft, fluffy bed, luxuriate in the downy softness of the pillows, and consider at just what moment I might tip toe out to the kitchen for some - M&Ms...

See you along the way!

the SconeLady

photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/69214385@N04/14002292144/">Don McCullough</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">cc</a>

photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/maryhodder/11281384916/">mary hodder</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>