Hamish, Natty and Flora

I am feeling a little better tonight, thankfully, as we are going to London tomorrow to hear the Messiah at the Albert Hall. It will be rather a busy weekend, catching up with several different friends in north London, so I need to gather my strength.

Yesterday evening we had a call from Mouse, Helena's youngest sister, saying they were about forty miles away near Worcester, and en route to visit us, which was news (good) to us! On their way down from Oban, Mouse and Stevie, and two of her kids, Flora and Hamish, had stopped off at Kate's, another of the sisters, in Preston, to pick up their cousin Natty, who wanted to go with to LegoLand as well.

They have a van which they've made into a camper where I joined them this evening as they toasted hot cross buns on the wood burning stove in the van. They will be camping in it tomorrow night near Maidenhead, before heading back up north.

Helena had hoped Kate was coming for easter and was very disappointed when they couldn't arrange it. So this has been a real treat for her as she misses her family. Their oldest sister, Tanya, is now a blipper too and she has just returned from New Zealand to Bahrain for a few weeks. Their two brothers lives in Crete and Botswana respectively, with their family and lots more children.

Before going to sit by the fire in the van, I walked to the back of the house and took this picture through the rear window of Hamish, Natty and Flora as they played late into the evening together. The cousins have all grown up around each other and provide us with a mass of children whose company we can enjoy. So here is a rare kids blip from me. I hope there are lots more

PS
The wine glass is mine!

PPS
Another synchronistic event happened to me today when I bumped into Andrew, an old school friend who had just arrived back in Stroud, from his home in Tuscany,Italy. I had lost contact with him for more than ten years, so it was good to welcome him back, even if it may not be permanent.