Thursday and Friday 11th and 12th July

 No blog post yesterday; were out all day visiting friends in Oxfordshire. We'd been weather-watching all week, and on Wednesday decided we go for the Thursday as being likely to be fine.

Regular readers will know I avoid being indoors with friends, relatives, anyone, as per the strongly suggested advice from respiratory consultants, so good weather - actually just 'it's not raining' is good enough as far as I'm concerned. 

They had gone to great trouble, putting up a garden canopy, bringing out furniture from the house, making sure they had done everything anyone could have thought of to accommodate me. So very, very kind. We haven't seen each other for probably seven years, and it was lovely to catch up, and to feel as though it was only months rather than years since we last got together. 

We left around 3pm; 'too early!' it seemed, but just as well. The traffic coming home and what should have been two and a half hours took us nearly 4 hours. Don't ask. Roadworks, road closures, diversions...

I had a lovely surprise waiting for me; my notebook swap parcel had arrived (a friend and I swap notebooks every month with a mixture of diary, letter, recipes, book recommendations, thoughts musings).

Oh the anticipation! I knew it was on it's way, and now it had arrived... the intricacies of the sticky tape to be solved to get to the contents without destroying the packaging,  and then, what has she written this month? 

I've just about managed NOT to read it all in one go.

Today, Friday, a large parcel arrived out of the blue. Not an online order, so who is it from and what could it be?

More anticipation!  Can I cope with all this excitement (well of course!).

It was a parcel of bits that our Canadian friends had been collecting for when they next came over to stay, but they decided to just post it. It's an amazing mixed collection of fascinating, zany, intriguing, useful; a from-the-heart gift from them, and much appreciated by us.