Conversation

Set off south to go and see in turn L&M, G&K and S&M. Had hoped to manage this by being in their gardens but once again hopeless weather and so we sat as distanced as possible across their various sitting rooms. A lot of catching up chat, focussed a lot on hearing about clearing out of the in laws’ house after B died in April. It’s clearly been a huge task, both physically and emotionally, and we reminisced about all the detail of the place (why is it that things like the feel and noise of the catches on the kitchen cupboards is so vivid for us all?!). At L&M’s some of the kids flitted in and out, and J arrived just as L was telling me about having found so many old photos at the house. She thinks there’s something about J that chimes with T as a child (on phone).
Chat with G&K more about mutual friends and experiences of lockdown than about family things - I'm baffled that they don't seem distraught by not having seen their new granddaughter yet who's now 3 months old, but they seemed at peace with it all. Lockdown in retirement in the countryside has apparently not felt much different to normal...
On one of the drives today I was happily chewing some chewing gum and a huge chunk (well, it feels like it's huge - didn't look that big when I saw it!) of filling fell out of one of my teeth. Goodness knows when I'll be able to get that repaired but I knew I had left it too long since my last dentist visit so had better sort that out once it's possible to get another appointment. Sigh!
Lovely supper with S&M then chat about all her work as an outdoor ambassador for Ordnance Survey and with a group called Adventure Queens. She’s keen to get to explore more of Scotland and so I told them about some of the places I’ve been and they’re tempted to try the Hebridean Way. Trying to work out how they could avoid the midges!