Golden days away...

Happy Monday lovely people!

I am off to London today to meet my sister and my baby niece and to spend a week with them there... I've been stocking up on warm clothes for both of them - they live on a tropical island so are ill-equipped for the cold of a European winter. We've had some snow again over the weekend and temperatures are hovering around 0. Poor things, I think it's going to be a bit of a shock to their systems. I have no doubt they'll be warm, glowing, happy days though, no matter what the weather.

I am so very excited to have this time with them. L is only just nine months old and I'm delighted to experience a week of her laughing, sunny presence, which normally I see only via video link.  I wonder if she will recognise me as the funny woman who usually coos at her from a computer screen?  Last time I saw her in person she was only three weeks old so I cannot wait to hold her and to imprint the smell and touch of her at this age in my memories. My niece and nephews fill a place in my heart that I didn't know went so deep until they came into my life. 

And I cannot describe how I look forward to seeing my sister.  We were born sisters, and we have that special sibling bond that sharing so much personal history brings, but we are more than that. We are friends. I feel sure that - as with my brothers - even if we were not related by blood and had met in another way, we would still be heart-bound family. I am doubly blessed.

D is visiting to buy a very special dress and I am so looking forward to sharing this with her, exploring some of our old stomping grounds in London, and to spending the time around this mission talking, laughing, crying, and drinking tea... These are the inevitable ingredients of hours we spend together. We aren't able to be in each other's company as much as we have been in the past or would both like to be now, and although we keep in close touch electronically, it's not the same - or as good - as the same-space sharing... I miss that.

So we are lucky to have this time - just the three of us - and there's a lot to be crammed into a few, short, golden days.

I don't know if I will be able to post while I am away but if not, be sure that I carry you in my thoughts, and will share the adventure upon my return...

Take care of yourselves,

♥

k

[Flickr credits]