Last week I had one of my regular meet-ups with my dear friend Sherri Matthews, who blogs at A View From My Summerhouse. As many of you know, Sherri and I both live in the south of England, but 150 miles apart from each other; however, I’m very fortunate that her two grown-up sons live in my neck of the woods and she visits them as often as she can.
To my delight, apart from our usual pub lunch, this time I was able to share one of my favourite walks with her — Cuckmere Valley and Estuary — the beauty of which I’ve celebrated many times in haiku and tanka verse.
My first get-together with Sherri was back in June 2015, when we met for lunch and discovered that we could do more talking in a few hours than some people do in a week! Not only was Sherri the warm, caring, and sincere person I expected her to be, but I found she shared my quirky humour and eccentricity, too. So how could we end up as anything other than good friends?
Of course we have writing in common also, and I think she’d agree that we support and encourage each other through the highs and lows of completing our projects. Sherri is working on the final draft of her memoir Stranger in a White Dress and, by now, most of my followers know that I write offbeat novels.
Sherri twice contributed to my monthly guest storyteller slot that I ran for a little over three years. On both occasions, she managed to delight readers with some flash-fictionalised seasonal memoir — ‘Chocolate Umbrella’ and ‘A Blue Coat for Christmas’.
I look forward to my next meet-up with Sherri, when I plan to share another of my favourite walks by the sea, which includes the site of archeological interest mentioned earlier this week in my tanka poem about a crow.
Has anyone else a story to tell about real-life friendships they’ve made through blogging?