Well, it's out there on Facebook so I might as well come clean. Yesterday was my (Mark) 80th birthday. The sun shone in celebration. Lots of lovely and thoughtful gifts and cards. Family get together here next week.
The icing on the cake, quite literally, was a surprise visit by our Ukrainian guests living in our annex. Evgenia Євгенія Лебеденко * and her 11 year old son David arrived at the kitchen door armed with a candle-lit birthday cake, a bottle of wine and the biggest Toblerone you ever did see. The lasting and now treasured gift was a cuddly sheep, expertly made by Evgenia herself. Still thinking ** of a name for him/her or whatever he/she self-identifies as:
The occasion also presented an opportunity for this lovely photograph:
* Things linguistic get complicated. Evgenia (we pronounce it Jenya) is Євгенія Лебеденко in Ukrainian Cyrillic script. David (pronounced David, thankfully) is settling in well as a new boy at Settle College. They are lovely people who, along with thousands of others fled their home town near the Russian border with whatever they could carry. It is a privilege and a delight to be able to give them a safe home.
** Name decided. It's Vlodymyr.
Many congratulations !
ReplyDeleteThank you Fiona.
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