It's been a full week: full of visits and reunions, a fair amount of reading, and a whole lot of travel. Two days at the BL, two days in Whitehaven, and one visiting C.'s family. Lots of good food, but no exciting breakfasts. I also learned to play Settlers of Catan. Over the course of the days in Whitehaven, we played three games, including one with the groom on the morning of the wedding to help him pass time. There was a cealidh, and, to my relief, C. is willing to dance called dances!

Impressively, the food at the wedding was quite good, and the portions were very substantial. It's a challenge to feed lots of people at once and do it with tasty food, but this event succeeded. I think the starter was a squash-and-red-pepper soup. I couldn't even finish the main course, it was so substantial. We had pineapple cake (with an option of plum pudding) for dessert, followed by the wedding cake, a stupendous work of art, with gorgeously handmade flowers, complete with marzipan calyxes, and leaves.

I bought three books, and read two works of fiction, including Diana Wynne Jones' latest, The Merlin Conspiracy. I enjoyed it, but the ending finished in such a flurry that, while there was nothing major left hanging, I wished it had finished less breathlessly. Baker's Boy was typical fantasy but rather disturbing. I'm not sure yet whether or not to read the next two books in the trilogy.