"Clusters of Ash Keys"

That is the registered device of someone who won't be using it. Lady Mariassa Ashgrove of the Marche of Norborough in the Middle Kingdom. I've just put an obituary up for her. I should have done it sooner, but other things kept jumping ahead of it on the list.

http://sandradodd.com/people/obituaries/sca

I feel very at peace keeping this page. Mariassa's device is beautiful. Per bend invected Or and vert, two clusters of ash keys counterchanged. When I put up a new note, I think of creating and tending a grave in a peaceful cemetery. This summer I got to stay in 'the manse' (the minister's house) in the Yarrow Valley in the Scottish Borders. The house had once had servants, and there were service bells in the kitchen, mostly disconnected. There was a wall along the back of the house, separating the garden of the manse from the church and cemetery behind. I went out and walked and took photos felt the quiet peace.

That was a home education connection ("home ed" they call it in the UK; homeschooling in the US), and I might return there. One morning very early I went to the unlocked church and played the organ.

When I add the notification of another passing, I think of my own friends who have passed from life or maybe just from my own life, as I have passed from being a physical presence in some people's lives to being a memory, and I feel rich in remembrance.