Old friends

It's been a busy weekend - in a good way - so this is a hasty back blip.
My oldest woman friend (on the left in the photo) recently had her 70th birthday.  We've known each other since student days in the mid-1970s.

After much deliberation, she decided to go ahead with a small party, at her house.  Unsurprisingly, this was met with enthusiasm and delight by the rest of us, not having been able to share times like this for so long.

We kept the windows and doors open, had a gazebo in the garden and generally tried to observe sensible precautions.  Hugs were not excluded, however :-)   And we danced - what a novelty! 

Val - whose birthday it was - had a great time.  It was quite a poignant mix of feelings, really: pleasure in meeting up, along with a slightly surreal sense of venturing back into social territory that has been off-limits for so long.