Party Time

We had a right royal get together on Saturday. There was food (lots of it)...

family  (45 in total)...

these are 3 of my lovely sisters.

and lots of fun despite the rain.

This is me above in true Ma Larkin style wearing my favourite pinny and supping some rather tasty vintage cider. My brother-in-law is the most appreciative pudding taster ever!

Another bro-in-law runs a rather posh gentlmens clothes shop and is always immaculately turned out. He kindly passes on his shirts to my hubby who wears them all till the death, usually of the collar first. I have saved these shirts and have now put them to good use as bunting (with the odd pair of pyjamas thrown in for good measure) So forget Kath Kidston, my bunting is Armani, Haines and Bonner, Aquascutum and Ted Baker to name but a few!

 We had a good coincidental reason to celebrate as one of my Dads donkeys, Ruby, produced this gorgeous little creature on Friday....

It's hard to believe she is only a day old here as she looks so tall next to her mum.
She is called Octavia, in memory of our very first donkey 40 years ago.
The original Octavia was the most placid donkey you could ever meet. It was impossible to contain her though, she should have been called Houdini. She could escape from anywhere and consequently spent her life wandering around the parish but always came home.
It is said you never see a donkey die, and when her time came a few years ago, my dad sat up all night with her in the stable as she neared her end. At 5 am he went into the house to brew a pint of tea as it would soon be milking time (he's a dairy farmer.) When he returned a few minutes later, she had gone.
I have many happy memories of days spent with that donkey.