Baby Softness and Bleary-Eyed Jet-Lag.....

Greetings from Bristol, my lovelies! Having a wonderful time....Wish you were here!


If you do come, do bring your woolly coat. Standing in my Florida kitchen, I laughed at GB when he warned me........He couldn't be serious? After all it's almost Summer, Spring at any rate, and therefore warm....ish? Guess who'll be having the last laugh!

I really am having a lovely time. The chattering teeth are a minor distraction. The natives here are absolutely lovely. If I'd been assigned the job of finding a partner for DMS [dear middle son] I couldn't have picked someone nicer than N, whom he found all by himself! And seeing him after four years of not.....well, I don't know what kept me! Maybe the fact that he hadn't yet settled down in something more civilised than batchelor quarters?

And the LB? [Little Bundle-thusly dubbed by his Aunt Lily.] What can I say that

won't make you all jealous of the cuddles and coos,

the little waving arms,

the tiny kicking legs,

the sweet little half smile,

the wise and wondering examination of my eyes and face as I murmur absolute doting nonsense to him,

and, most of all, the new baby softness of him?

Best to say nothing at all.....I wouldn't want to gloat. It wouldn't be very kind.

Back to the weather. I grew up in this kind of weather. How wimpy we become when cossetted by warmth and sunshine!

I was fairly wrecked at the end of the day and eager to curl up in the very cozy looking nest that had been prepared for me. But first, a shamefaced enquiry as to whether there might be a hot water bottle available. There was! And they were even polite enough not to laugh!

I slept like a baby, snug and warm and jet-lagged. I didn't even wake for a four o'clock feeding.... And today, despite the soft drizzle, there were plenty more hugs and snuggles, and walks outside. Everyone walks here, which is one of the things I miss most. And everyone was so friendly and civilized and Britishly polite [of course having a sweet baby with you makes you feel like a rock star anyway! Passing houses with gardens bursting into Spring bloom ,along village-y streets lined with small shops, and more people walking, and talking and riding their bicycles....all so normal....we forget what is normal when we no longer live in such a place.

The result is that I'm once again wrecked and heading nestwards. Forgive me if I sound like a doting grandma......But, as Popeye would say, "I yam what I yam...."