Visitors of various sizes

I'm still here. Life has just been very busy. Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter have been here and while this has been absolutely lovely, it hasn't left much time for other things since, obviously, I haven't wanted to waste a single second of time that I could be spending with them.

One of the days, Son, Daughter-in-Law, Middle Granddaughter and Baby Grandson came down and it was so wonderful to have them all together. Daughter 1, Son-in-Law 1 and their two came along as well, of course. We lined them all up on the garden bench, above - obviously I had to crop the photo because of the Unbloggability of the Unbloggables. You'll have to take my word for it that Son (third set of legs from the right) is carrying Baby Grandson.

Here you can see him better - all five grandchildren on the sofa. Aaaah.

It made my heart melt, though actually it was fairly energetic day, with little ones aged 8, 6, 3, 22 months and 3 months (and lots of people to feed). Everyone was amazingly tolerant of the cousins younger than them - it was especially amazing as they're not really together all that much. So it went very well but it wasn't exactly quiet.

Middle and Littlest Granddaughters were bathed together and took it in their stride.

Daughter 2 was working on three of the days she was here, so we looked after Littlest. She's delightful but exhausting: reaches for everything, especially (of course) the things she's not allowed to have, such as knives, phones, my reading glasses, pieces of art glass, the sticking plaster drawer, the knobs on the dishwasher, washing machine and tumble drier... you know the sort of thing.

We went to the park a couple of times,

watered the garden quite a bit

and cuddled Daughter 2's childhood teddies.

And now they're gone and I am, as ever, very sad. Mr L is quite enjoying the peace (and so am I, in a way. But I'd rather have my little peach. And my lovely daughter).

Oh, this was fun - Alison (on the right) came from Australia with her friend Megan. Alison and I have been blog friends for... 12 years or so? They were here for the Book Festival and also to tour Scotland. They didn't stay with us but we met up for a coffee. I'm the older, less glamorous one... It's so interesting: I think I've now met 12 bloggy people and they're always just as they sound in their writing. She was lovely.

And yes, the Festival - Son-in-Law 2 has been in Edinburgh for the month of August with his company, Showstopper the Improvised Musical (and thus Daughter 2 has been a single parent for that time). He didn't stay with us; the members of the company are provided with accommodation nearer their venue. However my nephew and his girlfriend have been staying with us (and he still is, till tomorrow) since he's a musician and has been playing in various Fringe shows. They're the easiest guests we've ever had! - just getting up, sometimes having breakfast, and then going out till (very) late. There was one occasion when Nephew came in at 4am and then Littlest started the day at 5.20am. Of the two, Nephew made far less noise about it than Littlest.

And now I'm looking forward to the arrival of the 13th bloggy friend, Margaret from Washington State - if British Airways haven't messed up her holiday completely with their inefficiency. See you soon, Margaret! (I hope).