hands across the sea...

We had friends over for tea this afternoon ~ Luda, her 3 year old daughter, Deborah, and her parents, who've been visiting from Russia during August. Ingrid and I had been curious as to how the afternoon would go, since neither of us has much Russian beyond Nyet and Da and we were told that they had about the same amount of English. With Luda translating bit by bit, however, we managed to cover a lot of territory and a good time was had by all.

Afterward we exchanged small gifts and they gave us this plate with scenes from St. Petersburg, which is where they're from. They also invited us to visit them in Russia, offering weeks in the Finnish countryside and her special Russian white mushroom soup. Improbable, but not impossible, and nice.

When I thanked him, he said, "No thank ~ Come!"

It was a lovely day.