llywela | (no subject)

Congratulations to my cousin Ruth on the birth of her second child, a little girl called Keira Ashleigh Maya, which is something of a mouthful. Shouldn't be surprised at that, though - her six year old is Ewan Ryan Alan, which pretty much makes him an 'era'.

Kind of makes you stop and think about family. Ruth is my cousin, of sorts - I get confused about degree. Second cousin? First cousin once or twice removed? Second cousin removed? Not sure what you call it, really. Her mother is my dad's first cousin, or one of them anyway: he has around sixty. My family is not small. But Ruth belongs to one of those branches of extended family that we're fairly close to. Her mother, Alma, belongs to our church, we see her weekly; young Ewan is in our Sunday School, due to come up into my class next year (and the most adorable little thing ever); we grew up with the girls, Rebecca and Ruth. In fact, Ruth lived with us for a few months as a teenager when she was going through a difficult patch with her mother, after her father's death. I was pre-teen at the time, and remember resenting this interloper borrowing all my stuff without asking. Cousins. The degree doesn't really matter. It's all family.

Ewan was born the same summer that my cousin Paul died. Ruth was the size of a house at the funeral, a bright, sunny June day, and then a few weeks later there was Ewan. Time goes so quickly - it'll be seven years next month. And I remember Paul so vividly - it's hard to believe he's been gone Ewan's entire life; that it's been so long now. Time flies.

So, anyway, congratulations to Ruth, Rob and Ewan, and welcome to the world, Keira.

My family is not small; we tend to have a lot of new babies on a fairly regular basis. I believe Jason and Emma's fourth is due next. Kind of hoping they'll draw the line there, but no guarantees. We run to big families in our clan. Maybe that's one reason I remain so determinedly single and unattached!

Took myself for a nice long walk up around the lake this morning. A bit windy, but it stayed dry. We don't need any more rain just at the moment. The waterfall from the lake down to the stream was pretty much a torrent as it was - haven't seen it like that in a long time. The stream was higher than usual. Hosepipe ban? Water shortage? Come to Wales - we have lots. My little garden is loving it. So were the birds up at the lake. Swans are still nesting, but most of the others have their young already. Saw a goose family with seven sturdy babies, already well grown. And a coot family with six younglings - mother coot fierce enough to chase away swans six times her size. The baby coots are adorable: all black but for a patch of downy, bright orange feathers on top of their heads. They look like little punks. Fantastic.

Then took myself on a tour of the local charity shops and browsed the bric-a-brac, as my mum collects egg cups and I like to keep my eye open for her. Also, I have a bad habit of seeking out really obscure things to put plants in. I was good today - I resisted the temptation to invest in a chamber pot for my garden. Would have looked great all planted up, but enough is enough. I was strong, and instead spent my money on fresh fruit from the stall on the corner of my street - their stuff is always great quality for low prices. And there's nothing quite like a fresh fruit salad, home made and delicious.

And now...just steeling myself to get some more house work done...