You don’t know Lynn and Peter Hill. I didn’t either. That is, until one day in the second week of September.

I saw them as I was finishing one of my regular perambulations on our wonderful waterfront. She was taking his picture, with the boats and river as background. An idyllic setting, which should bring good memories to them in years hence.

As I am often wont to do, I asked if they would like for me to take a photo of them together. Their immediate response was enthusiastic in the affirmative.

And then I managed to overcome my shyness and laconic nature (yeah, sure), and we had a truly delightful 10 to 15 minutes — perhaps longer — conversation among the three of us.

Now, how might this little waterfront occurrence be of special interest, or different from so many similar experiences I have had along the waterfront?

Well, now. Because Lynn and Pete, first-time visitors to our town, are from England.

They had flown into Washington, D.C., and were doing sort of a circuit of a region of the country. They had traveled on the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and were completely enthralled by such scenic splendor.

They both remarked upon how very friendly those they encountered during their travels were. Isn’t that nice to hear?

When they were to leave here the next morning they would begin a trek to the Outer Banks, with their final destination being back to that other Washington and then back across the sea to England. Back home.

Pete’s livelihood is derived from Marlborough Financial Planning. It’s his entity, and provides “Independent Mortgage and Protection Advice.” The address is 30 Marlborough Drive, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire. Love that address.

So. What are the probabilities of being with them again? Not much better than me winning the lottery. That’s simply a reality.

But it does reinforce the eloquent and famous first lines “No man is an island …” Oh, yes. We are, all of us, regardless of country, race, religion or any of those other distinctions we may make, brothers and sisters. Fellow inhabitants of the same planet.

And — serendipitously so — I have two new friends.

APROPOS — “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.”

— John Donne (1624)