Every life is in many days, day after day

I quote above from "Ulysses" by James Joyce, which I finished reading last night. Not the easiest book to get into, but very interesting in its minutiae and Joyce's language certainly has beauty. I'm glad that I persevered with it! I'm sitting in the back room, with the French windows open, enjoying the sunshine. We cooked our first dinner party in the new open plan kitchen on Saturday night, which means that we are in full view as we cook and plate up - I still keep forgetting where to find things so I felt that I was footering about a lot; luckily our guests were the good-natured Heather and Ewan who put us at our ease and we had a lovely evening! Ewan did compare our efforts in the kitchen to the Chuckle Brothers whose slapstick comedy includes the catchphrase "To you, to me!" and "Oh dear oh dear!" 

I have just arrived back from a two day visit to Jennifer and her family in Kingston Blount; the weather was beautiful there too and Alasdair and I had a great time. Ally is spending this week doing work experience at the BBC with Russell, a great opportunity. When we arrived on Sunday afternoon Jennifer and Russell were having a barbecue for a group of friends. They turned out to be a really nice bunch and we all chatted into the evening. The barbecue was delicious, Russell cooked it to perfection and there were lots of desserts too. The next day Ally left very early with Russell to go to work. Jennifer and I had a very pleasant day; walking Angus, going out for lunch in a very picturesque riverside village called Marlowe, and visiting Jennifer's friend Hilary where Josh and Ben had been playing when we were out at lunch. Hilary's house is a converted barn with huge gardens, she was in the process of clearing out her pond which was more like a small lake; an amphibious vehicle was dragging the silt out of it! Then back to Jennifer's garden where we chatted with more friends whose children were round to play. It was really nice to spend time with Josh and Ben, they are both great fun. Alasdair enjoyed his first day at the BBC, he had been checking the "newsfeed" in the morning and then in the afternoon he had gone to Bush House in the centre of London. Today Jennifer showed me around Princes Risborough which is where her family may move to, there is a train station where Russell could get a fast train into London, and it is also handy for transport to Josh's new school. And here I am back home courtesy of Ryanair; Davie is cutting Grandma's grass, James is in the hammock, and I think we will have tea in the garden.