Every Picture Tells A Story

This picture is the first incident in a story which has now lasted some forty years.

A painting of a milkmaid tending a cow. Pat and I were living in Dunblane and every Saturday evening we would venture into a local antique dealer to see what end of week bargains were available.

‘Herr Doktor’ as we would come to know him was deciding whether to buy this painting or not.  The decision discussion went on for several minutes until I interrupted and said I would buy the painting if he did not. That made his mind up!

We invited Herr Doktor to join us for dinner. He accepted!

Today is Herr Doktor’s 82nd Birthday and we all gathered around the dining table of Pat 2 to celebrate this great event.

Also present was Volker and Isolde R who had driven from Germany to visit their daughter and family.

Volker had worked with Herr Doktor at the University of Stirling.

Pat had prepared much of the food and Pat 2 prepared the remainder, supplying libations as required together with the venue.

The lives of everyone seated around the table are entwined in fairly complex ways and continue to be so. Far too complicated to describe in a Blipfoto entry.

And it all started because of this painting.