Well, today was good. Lovely inspiring Mass, followed by quite a lazy day, but ate all the crackling off the roast pork and I’m feeling like a little piggy.

Last week -  out at camera club and birding. Did some gardening at last. Started cleaning kitchen cupboards, just a bit every day. John recovering well from bone graft. (this is all back to front) Here are some  photos from birding - a bat, a marsh frog and a wasps’ nest. Yes, Iknow it’s birding, and we actually saw a black necked grebe (just missed the osprey) but Michael knows all about all flora and fauna.

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The week before - exciting. Martin, Fiona, Alexander and Olivia came for a few days. (’ll need to think of a collective noun for them. The Oxford contingent? Bit too formal) It was so so lovely to get to know our first grand-daughter. She reached her seventh week while she was with us, and although they were only here for a few days I swear she changed before our eyes. Her smiles got more and more frequent as the days passed. Alexander was his usual happy self. He is so like Martin when he was a baby. ‘Little friend of all the world’.

Poor John had a bone graft just before they came. He doesn’t want to wear dentures, and the bone in his top jaw was too soft to hold implants, so he had bone  from his lower jar grafted on. The bruising stretched from his neck down to his chest, and the pain was really bad, but as he says - it was self-inflicted. I should have taken a photo! Instead, here is a photo of Olivia the Lovely.Actually, there are three as the first one was when she was one day old.

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One day, we went to Hornsea (minus John as he was suffering, and also had a TMA overdue) Alexander loved the sea, but our visit was curtailed when he fell in the waves and got soaked. He’s only 17 months, and still a little unsteady on his feet.

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I can’t remember anything further back than that.

For the coming week - The Scottish contingent (!) are coming to stay with us on Thursday, and on Saturday we are all going to Oxford for the christening on Sunday. We’ve all got into the same hotel, as M and F’s house will be full. Looking forward to it!

I’m writing this on Sunday evening as I don’t want an excuse to open the laptop tomorrow. I intend to WORK. Bye.