The hospitality of southerners is so profuse, that taverns are but poorly supported. A traveller, with the garb and the manners of a gentleman, finds a welcome at every door …conversation flows cheeringly, for the southern gentleman has a particular tact in making a guest happy. After dinner you are urged to pass the afternoon and night, and if you are a gentleman in manners and information, your host will be in reality highly gratified by your so doing.

Jacob Abbott, 1835.

It’s always intriguing how easy conversation can be with people who are essentially strangers. The times and places our spheres have intersected are rare – we have a few shared experiences (Nik’s parents worked together in the early 70’s) and Nik and Katrina have maintained punctuated connections over four decades of letter writing, but the times we’d actually met are less than a handful. Diane, Jim and Katrina’s welcome and generosity was disproportionate. It’s a southern thing.

Here’s a meal (and recipe) we shared together.

And then we passed the afternoon and evening with 1835 Texan Bourban called ‘Come and take it‘

Thanks Dianne, Jim and Katrina for your great hospitality.

Oh, and I must be a gentleman of manners and information!