The gang's all here!

"The gang's all here!" is something my Dad used to say when the four off us were all together. He said it on the day before he died when Jennifer arrived back from Africa to see him and the four of us were together in the hospital. It's a phrase that always reminds me of him, and I think of it in relation to my own children and James - I like nothing better than the five of us being together. This of course used to be all the time but since Jamie went to University in Dundee four years ago it has become rarer and thus more to be treasured. Of course I know how lucky I am that he is only an hour and a half's drive away, but I still miss him. And I will miss Ally and Davie just as much when they move out, although I know that it's a good thing for them to "fly the nest" - the alternative would be them all living at home when they were forty with me looking like Granny out of the Beverley Hillbillies! Anyway he arrived back this weekend to bid farewell to his friend Chris who is going to spend the summer in America teaching soccer, so we will all be having tea together shortly. However we have all spent a very diverse weekend; Ally and Davie at parties, Jamie out, James hill-walking, me at book club. So I am thinking about Australia and how nice it will be for us all to spend three weeks together on our big adventure!
Book club was great on Friday evening, it was a lovely warm day and we all sat in the beautiful garden at Doreen's house and had a great discussion about "The Man with the Wooden Hat". I also got lots of ideas for holiday reading and Lesley was telling us about a literary magazine that she subscribes to. It was a very pleasant and summery evening.
On Saturday James and I went over to Margie and David's for dinner in Howwood. We haven't seen them for ages and it was good to hear all their news, they have bought a house in Largs that they are going to retire to in a few years. They are both looking very well and happy. Dinner was absolutely delicious - gorgeous stew with dumplings (by coincidence we had been discussing earlier in the day how we both like dumplings!) and a magnificent summer pudding.
I hear James reversing up the drive after his hill walk up Beinn Maol Chalum so I'm off to finish making tea with Jamie, for the whole gang!