Unlike many I am fortunate not to have lost any friends or relatives due to Covid.  However many plans to see relatives and friends have had to be abandoned and last year we saw the four grandchildren for only a few hours and unfortunately never saw our daughter who lives abroad.  Yesterday the younger daughter and her family called in on their return journey from a few days in a caravan with friends.  It was so lovely to see them again on their first visit since 2019 and to hear their news and their laughter and see how tall they had grown since their last stay.  8 year old O realised that he was no longer small enough to sleep in his “Hobbit Hole” under the desk but was quite happy to make maps for the Hobbits out of the peeling bark from the Silver Birch and the weather was good enough to spend much of the time outside too. We have been very fortunate to have seen them on four days within the last fifteen as we also saw them when we went south recently but did not stay with them.  
Although I took many photos I never publish any of the family so instead here is a photo of one of the Love-in-the-mist flowers emerging from the “mist” just as I hope that it won’t be so long again before we can see our lovely family in the dispersing mist of the pandemic