I’m back from Windsor, safe and sound, and now ensconced in the comfy chair with both cats sprawled on my lap and extended legs. They obviously missed me.

The two days with Edmund’s next-elder sister was spent in long hours of simple nattering, which both of us have missed. Her husband has become very deaf, changing their conversational dynamic profoundly, and I of course normally talk to the cats. So we spent our waking hours just running our mouths. It was nice.

The great-nieces and great-nephews are growing up while my back is turned, and even the youngest is now toilet-trained and the next-youngest is starting to talk to grown-ups in complete sentences. How time flies.

Now that I have completed my family visits for this holiday season, I shall concentrate on getting rid of the minor bug that is again — or still? — making my throat and ears sore. I thought I had it whipped, but it was merely lurking.