Alaric and Nerissa gone

...left for Lochac.

They're spending the day in town, getting a cab to Heathrow midafternoon and off Down Under by an evening flight.

Sigh.

Whirlwind of guests

The past couple of weeks have been full of company chez nous.

Nerissa and Alaric have used our space as a staging ground before their departure - appropriate as they used our flat much the same way on their arrival in Thamesreach, after wandering around the UK for a couple of months.

On Friday we also welcomed Alex Darlington and his lady to ours, passing through en route to Oxford and to TORM.

Sunday we had aryanhwy J, and walker Gwen to visit; Ary and I kept Gwen (mostly) occupied while Robert and Joel worked on creating a mould for pewter casting. The results were excellent - Robert teaches well, and Joel asked thoughtful questions, so they both had a fine afternoon and evening working together.

I had the pleasure of introducing Gwen to her first chicken and pig, at the local city farm. The catch was that it started to rain, and was quite cold, though she seemed oblivious to it...and did not want to be once more stroller-bound, and even meeting the charming goat wasn't sufficent to make up for being trapped in the stroller. Do Not Want!

Back at ours, the only consolation was meeting Haggis, who bore up with some toddler loves for awhile, then absented herself from further attentions. I was relieved she (Haggis, not Gwen!) didn't swat, scratch or bite, but simply moved out of reach as needed.

And this week Alaric and Nerissa were staging through ours again after a last-minute squeezed in trip to Cork. We caught up with Kev, Ozbeg, and Soph at dinner at the Dove, and I had the most delicious honey stout from St. Peter - it smelled like a jar of honey, it was amazing.

I love company. I also love saying good bye and having the flat back to ourselves and the puss.

Here's to home this evening!