Father's Day

Some cows bullocks in a field peacefully grazing as we were travelling home after a rather trying day at the in-laws. The idea was that the whole family would get together for a barbecue but the in-laws are getting on and we've increasingly found that while the idea is lovely the reality of these occasions ends up being very stressful for them and by extension for everyone else too. As time goes on they increasingly cannot cope with so many people descending on the house and disrupting their peaceful, ordered routine. It didn't help that FiL had ordered a brand new bbq that needed to be assembled from about 1000 mostly tiny pieces before any cooking could begin. Nor that he thought he could help accelerate proceedings by trying to light their old bbq under the wisteria clad wooden pergola while assembly of the new was progressing. Nor that FiL is ALWAYS right, even when he's very wrong (pergola conflagration was narrowly averted by swift and brave intervention by W). Sigh. SiL, kids and I all decided it was much safer to retreat to a lovely shady spot in the garden where we wouldn't get shouted at or cause annoyance. Once out of the cannon fire it was really rather pleasant.