Ready

We're ready : the mulled wine is warming, the soup is heating, today's signature dish is overflowing in a good way it's dish in the oven, the dessert is cooling in the fridge, the cheese is ready and the wine is chilled.
All we need now are our lunch guests and on cue they arrive in a blast of cold air from a chilly morning.

We slurp wine and talk, and eat and talk, and laugh and talk with stories and remembrances of other lives before we met.
The hours pass too quickly. We are getting to know each other and it's good; so good that we feel deprived when they leave. But we say there will more times like this, and these will be good too.

We clear up, we wash glasses and dishes and pots and pans, and then we are just two again and the house is so quiet.
That was good we say to ourselves. What lovely people- I think our lunch went well, don't you? Yes we tell each other, it was a success.

Thank you JoppaStrand and Tiggy for being such wonderful guests.

It seemed a happy coincidence that the postie brought me today, a fridge magnet sent by Gillipaw, which had a quote on it saying " I drink to the general joy of the whole table"