Rain, rain, go away ......

And it did!

After lashing down for the entire day yesterday, our plan to have a picnic today seemed pretty unreaslistic, but no. Not only did it stop raining, but beautiful sunshine and heat - 27 degrees of it - claimed the day for their own.

Richmond park - which is lovely at the best of times - was positively radiant today. Can a park be radiant? Well it was, absolutely. Everything was fresh and alive after the previous days soaking and we discovered a previously unknown piece of the park - unknown to us anyhow.

Our party was made up of the following; the four of us (as usual), two of M's oldest and bestest school friends (who happen to be one of M's bridesmaids - Mona - and Joseph's God-mother - Camilla ) and Camilla's two boys. Camilla took us to the most wonderful little corner of the park called Isabella's Sanctuary; a fenced and gated area which is straight out of the secret garden of Narnia.

It was breathtakingly beautiful. Not only to look at, but at one point I stopped walking, ahead of everyone, closed my eyes and took a deep breath. You could smell the flowers, smell the damp ground; all the while hearing nothing but competing bird song from every direction. I opened my eyes to see two tiny robins hop across the path, looking at me like an intruder on their patch. And then ....... a low flying aircraft broke the spell! Well, it was Richmond after all!!

We found an open patch of grass, spread out our picnic rugs and ate, talked and laughed for hours. The children were happy running around and we were happy catching up with each others news, gossip and stories.
Another short walk and an ice cream later and we made our way back to Camilla's parents who live right next door to the park (which is nice!) for tea and cake.

The nicest thing about today was seeing M and her friends together, laughing and chatting like they'd seen each other only yesterday. One lives in Scotland, one jets all around the world with work but today, they were just old friends again, swapping stories and updating each other on their lives.

It was smashing.

Poops and Missy had a great time but they were wiped out. They'd reached the "so tired we're hysterical" point, so we merely wiped the stray yoghurt out of their hair and put them to bed; another succesful Saturday duly accomplished.

G'night kids.

God bless.