You know you have friends when

they send you photographs

which just make you smile, and smile.
And friends walk in with a jar of marmalade as the current jar is being emptied onto breakfast toast. Great timing and thank you. My other marmalade making donor take note, I’ve enough to keep me going for a few months.

I don’t think I really appreciated pretzels while I was living in America in the 1980’s. We had them but rarely in the monastery. Although at this time of year Rev. Master Jiyu would come up to the monastery kitchen to supervise the cooking of holiday treats. Pretzels were on the menu but I can’t remember eating them….

These photographs were taken in the Black Forest, Germany. Thank you kind photographer.