The first day of the rest of our lives

I woke early before anyone else and took some juice and sat in the garden on the bench listening to the birds awaken; watching a ladybird potter up and down a lavender stalk; and spying a teeny spider dashing around between the fig leaves. I spotted a beautiful large spider's web on the acanthus and two enormous toadstools growing out of the bark chippings. Starlings wheeled around and about squawking; swallows swooped and squeaked much higher up; a collared dove stood in the gutter and cooed loudly; and a blackbird perched at the tip top of the blue spruce and sang his heart out. I don't often spend an hour and a half just sitting and contemplating but was in the mood for it today and am glad I did. Of course, I thought about B.

I then went back to bed for an hour!

N and C emerged about 9.45am and I drove them to their car in Stony. When I got home I found that L had decided not to go home for various reasons and we chewed the fat a while. Then I did some ironing while L kindly mowed my grass, which I have rather neglected. He also took the hedge trimmers I'd borrowed from him a good two months ago and attacked the garden. It really needed a good hair cut and that's certainly what it got. It looks twice as wide now and the green bin could have been filled three or four times over!

As we had all agreed as a family to congregate at C's at 6pm for dinner and we were each allocated a job to do, I went shopping for the ingredients for my bit, the spag bog, made that then changed the beds and did some more ironing in front of some of the new season's rugby on BT Sport.

L and I headed over to C's laden with food, folding chairs, and plates and cutlery as they didn't have enough for 14! We had another family bonding evening - the last time we'll all be together until Christmas and the mood has subtly but definitely changed from recent weeks, now that the funeral is out of the way. N is wondering whether to buy B's house from the rest of us and to renovate it and let it out. He canvassed our opinion and we'll see what he decides to do. N and C go back to Kenya tomorrow so it was the big goodbye from us all. I can't help feeling he'll cope a bit better once he goes back to work. Hope that goes for me too.

On the way home, L commented on how great my family is together and I had to agree. At least one brother has asked him to keep an eye on me. How sweet. I keep realising that what we have made together and the effort we all make to bond and to stay a tight unit, despite several elements being far flung most of the time is something rare and to be treasured. I also love that we each play our part and I am so grateful for them and what we have. Here we all are at dinner. The current generation. All for one and one for all!