We have spent my Hero’s birthday in all sorts of places and I enjoyed looking through the “memories” that Facebook kindly popped up for me when I logged in that day. This year, we were going to be at home, even though we’d originally planned to be in Sicily. Never mind. Safer to cancel that and instead, enjoy the company of family and a few friends - if they felt comfortable enough to join us, that is.

Amy and Edward had taken time off work to go to Sicily, so they arrived on Tuesday and we caught up with news and wedding photos! I’m not sure I need to post all 400+ here, so give me a few days to make a selection and they will appear before too long. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to combine birthday and wedding celebrations, so I made another cake and bought a bunch of flowers at the greengrocers.

Not forgetting our gluten free friends of course.

I ordered a few bottles of the same Camel Valley English fizz that we’d enjoyed at the wedding, taking advantage of the promotion for English Wine Week - how lucky was that - and seventeen of us toasted the birthday boy and the happy couple with cake and sparkle.

It was lovely to see people again! We’d have loved to go out into the garden, but the heavens opened and we had to make do with opening all the doors and windows and watching the rain from indoors.

I think there was a football match on that evening, but no matter - we took our time and washed up when we were ready.

My Hero and I sat down with a cup of tea whilst the youngsters and their sweet friend Seb put the world to rights over supper and another bottle of fizz. My Hero looked around, read his birthday cards and reflected on all the good wishes that had come his way throughout the day.

Of course there were balloons!