Potluck

It's all about the reunions this week - Julia again, accompanied by Rachel and Jess, posing beautifully in Rachel's new backgarden.

Today was lovely. I woke up to a perfect weather day, the kind I'd been dreaming about through the long, cold English winter - blue skies, sunshine and a lovely breeze. I had a lazy morning before starting on some hardcore baking with my sous chef (aka Dad) - I haven't had a baking session of such epic proportions since my leaving party last August, when I made about fifty cookies on sticks. I love baking, so it was so nice to get back to it. Plus the house smells amazing now.

Dad and I had a walk down to the river and through the farm while we were waiting for one batch of baked goods to cool, and it was just lovely. Lots of kids again, including one girl who was halfway through a fence into the paddock picking grass to feed to the goats - adorable! Everyone was in jeans and long-sleeved tops because for Aussies today was quite cool, especially with the breeze; I was in shorts and a t-shirt for the first time in months, soaking up the sunshine and the warmth.

My friend Rachel recently got married, and she invited us over to her new house for a potluck dinner tonight (hence the baking - I volunteered for dessert). It was the first time I'd seen her and Jess since I got back, and it's amazing what has and hasn't changed in the last few months. Obviously a marriage is a massive change, and a lot of our conversation for the evening was about how Rachel was adjusting to everything - I was surprised to find that I related to a lot of it, especially the stuff to do with living out of home for the first time. Of course, as is common with our group, the conversation did get quite deep - lots of religious talk (Rachel is Christian and I'm Jewish, so we have fairly interesting conversations!), and lots of comparing British, Australian and American society. It was a lovely, lovely night.

I took a lot of photos, and I got some really great shots, but I thought this one represented the night particularly well. It's also a lovely photo of three beautiful ladies, which is always a bonus! Unfortunately I can't link to the others just yet, but they will come...