A surprise visit with two old friends!

I loved seeing all the pretty new fall magazines on the newsstand over the weekend. There are lots of pumpkins, of course—even one entire magazine devoted to cooking with pumpkins—and the Christmas magazines are starting to appear as well, so consider yourselves warned. But the thing that immediately jumped out to me on the cover of the new Victoria was …

This headline: "Nancy Lindemeyer's visit with Toshi Otsuki." Now that is cause for celebration among those of us who consider ourselves true Victoria fans, those who've been with the magazine since its beginnings in 1987. Nancy Lindemeyer was the founding editor of the magazine, and Toshi Otsuki was that extraordinarily gifted photographer who shot so many of those dreamy, light-filled photos that captured our hearts.

It turns out that in 2014, Nancy went to Japan to visit Toshi and his wife, accompanied by the magazine's early art director, who, I had not realized, is married to Victoria's former managing editor. (It's funny how often people in the media end up marrying one another. Ahem.) I savored every word of this lovely article, delighted to hear from Nancy herself as well as to find out what was going on with Toshi. I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't read the article yet, but a couple of things Nancy wrote especially warmed my heart:

"Toshi and Michiko have a typical Japanese house, with a three-tier garden. They grow tea, oranges, camellias, and many other beautiful flowers." (Toshi grows tea? I love him even more!)

"We went to a tea room near Toshi's home to find that the Japanese owners were devotees of Victoria. There were framed photos from the magazine on the walls." (Nancy and Toshi went to tea? What a fun time that must have been!)

I'll save the rest so you'll have some surprises, but for those of us who have for so long loved Toshi and tea, this is must reading!