The obligatory group shot

and a terrible one, too, not because the group was terrible, but the photographer was! We were all exhausted after many hours of pointlessly trying to re-assemble a sofa bed that should never have been taken apart in the first place!

My cousin Fi and her family have recently moved to a new cottage near Fairford, Glos. It was formerly the chauffeur's house and is situated in the grounds of a 'big house'. They have no duties, chauffeuring or otherwise, but are immensely pleased to have found somewhere to live. This gathering was unique in that Fi and I live in Glos (though she insists that she is in Wilts now!), my sister Kate and her children in Preston, Lancs, and my brother Ben and his family in Heraklion, Crete. We don't get together very often. I think the last time we three siblings were together was in 2003.

Left to right: Ben, Stephen (Fiona's husband, barely visible), Kate, Fi, Natty (Kate's younger son), Niki (Ben's wife) and Maria (Ben's daughter, back only!) The two little girls, Jezreel and Zina, were playing upstairs.

There was something blurry on the right hand corner of my lens. Oops.

After eating, we lit a fire and played Giant Jenga, followed by a board game that Fiona has invented, about the life of a salmon.... it went on until the wee sma' hours, and we finally bedded down in our five dormitories at around 2 am. I went to sleep to the crackling of a fire and the loud tick of an antique clock.