Ten days ago or so, I posted some photos of Time Goes By Elder Music columnist Peter Tibbles and his Assistant Musicologist, Norma, during their stay with me here in Oregon.

On 3 May, I saw them off to Idaho where they visited relatives. A week later, the AM flew to the east coast of the U.S. to see friends and Peter returned to my house for a few more days.

Among the interests Peter and I share is food and wine so a lot of our time was expended on thinking about, talking about, shopping for and preparing meals. What I did not realize until now, as I was going through the photos, is that we might as well have been in Japan.

That, above, is part of our meal at the excellent Japanese restaurant in Lake Oswego, Kurata, where we had lunch one day. And here is Peter at another excellent Japanese lunch at Mio in Portland a few days later. I've forgotten what the waving around of the $10 bill was about.

After Peter described a salmon and black bean dish he likes to cook, we made a trip to the nearby Japanese supermarket, Uwajimaya, to purchase supplies for the dinner. Here is Peter deep into preparation:

Here are the salmon and black beans ready to steam.

While Peter played chef for this meal (and many others at home), I set the table.

It was a glorious meal that I will try to repeat on my own sometime soon.

In past posts about Ollie the cat, I've told you how shy he is when people visit – straight under the bed he goes when anyone who is not me walks through the door. Maybe it was the length of Peter's stay or maybe he really, really likes Peter or maybe in his old age, Ollie is relaxing – as he did in this chair.

He even allowed himself to get oh-so-cute while Peter was here as in this poorly lighted shot of him peeking at us in the dining room.

He even reverted to some odd behavior I haven't seen in more than a year when he dropped a mouse into his water bowl one day. There's no way to know what that's about.

Unlike the first week Peter was here with Norma, there was glorious weather during his second stay. On the day we had lunch at Mio in Portland, we also spent some time at the Portland Japanese Garden. This stone lion is one of two that greeted us at the entrance.

The garden is as beautiful as you would imagine. Although the wisteria wasn't ready yet, spring flowers and shrubs were in bloom. Peter and I both found a lot to photograph.

And this flat garden is, obviously, serene whatever the season of the year.

At home (when we were not eating), Peter educated me on Australian TV comedy shows, we both read a lot and aren't we all happy for modern communications that make it easy to keep up with email when we're away from home.

Peter is spending another couple of weeks with his sister in the San Francisco area before flying home to Melbourne. Last Sunday afternoon, I drove him to Union Station in Portland for the train trip south.

It's amazing the friends we make on the internet and I have to remind myself now that I can't just call Peter to invite him and Norma to dinner or suggest we meet at Mio or Kurata for lunch. It was hard to say goodbye and I sat in the car for a while until my eyes cleared up enough to drive.

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Mary Hertslet: Life Lessons Learned