gewurtztraminer and nasturtiums

I have a friend

who is back from a long holiday

visiting friends and wonderful places

with big lakes and waterfalls

Who attended a reunion in France where she

arranged flowers for a party of 300 guests

and ate goats cheese and macaroons

I have a friend who arrived to visit me yesterday

at my office,

only for a hug

because she has just heard the sad news

and she is so sad,

sad that she did not know

and sad that she was away and having fun

while I was not

I have a friend who

later, the same day

arrived for a longer visit

armed with a fusion of

nasturtiums, poppadoms and a 20 year old bottle of

expensive looking Gewurztraminer

She arranged the flowers

beautifully and carefully

while I opened her aged bottle of wine,

the cork crumbled

I strained out the crumbles of cork and poured out the

dark yellow syrupy liquid

We tasted it

and quickly poured it down the drain

A new bottle was opened

with a modern label

and a screw-top cap

It did not look nearly as historic

or romantic

but we drank it

and ate poppadoms

dry,

without curry

and talked and laughed and

she cried some more

and we laughed some more

She left with her aged wine

(it was a wonderful bottle)

and a collection of bottle tops for someone who makes

magic out of them

and our dried garden leaves for her compost

(which Michael collects for her)

And as she took off down the road

(at speed)

in her car filled with treasures

I realised how lucky I am to have a someone like her

in my life

who cares

and is not afraid to be different

She says what she feels

and it does not matter whether she is in France

arranging expensive flowers

and drinking expensive wines

or in my kitchen

placing hand picked nasturtiums in a jug

while throwing expensive foreign wine down the drain

and then enjoying

the local supermarket blend

with a friend