Friday 6 August 2021

Photo Scavenger Hunt :: August #1 ... Friends

Hi there everyone 😀

The topic of thought for Astrid's first photo scavenger hunt challenge for August is an interesting one ... Friends ... and funnily enough today we are out with some very good ones for lunch 😀

I have to say ... to start with I didn't find it the easiest of challenges … and not because I am short of friends. In fact ... I am ever grateful to be blessed with a fabulous group of friends of all kinds.

There are those really close friends that I’ve known forever and are more like family, good friends that drop in and out from time to time, colleagues that have become good friends even though we may not get together often, friends that are the perfect company for a day out or an afternoon tea, Facebook friends and some that fall into more than one of the above categories.

What I found a bit tricky about this week's challenge was my post going on forever, or offending someone by leaving them out, so I’ve decided to just stick with three groups of friends that I seem to have known forever and where we always schedule in time to spend together, one way or another, whatever the circumstances.

Last weekend we spent time with ‘The Sutherlands’, though we were missing Lauren. I went to school with Lesley and we have been firm friends for over 40 years. We really have seen each other through both great and tricky times and I really can’t imagine this ever changing ...
All we did was get together in our garden for food and chat … it really is one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon …
I first met Jackie, another really good friend when I was 16 and got a job as a Saturday girl in Bambers … a dress shop in town. We are lucky enough to have lived within walking distance of each other for about 25 years and it really is lovely just being able to pop round for a quick chat … which can often turn into an afternoon.

During lockdown, as well as plenty of doorstep catch ups, we resorted to Zoom for one of our regular Saturday night get togethers, which actually ended up being a really good night …

When things loosened up a bit we managed a socially distanced day out at the National Memorial Arboretum ...

My latest meet up with Jackie was another favourite way to spend an afternoon … lunch with Jackie, Rachel and Erin. Rachel is Jackie’s daughter and my God daughter and Erin is Rachel’s beautiful baby girl …
Our third group of really close friends are Jo, Steve, Hannah and Meg. We’ve been friends for over 20 years and again always try and make sure that we have our next get together on the calendar.

This photo is one of my favourites of us all together from an afternoon tea meet up we had recently …
 
There are so many things that I love about my friendships with these three fabulous families but one that is really special to me is how these friendships have stood the test of time and whilst they are ever changing ... with children growing up and even having children of their own ... we still all love spending the simplest of times together.

Interestingly all three of my closest friends have birthdays within the space of a week and they fall in the order in which we met … how strange is that? It does normally make for a pretty busy October 😀

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8 comments:

  1. What a lovely time you've had meeting your friends, going back so many years. All happy and smiley faces. My favourite photo is the cake/pie made with filo pastry; it looks so yummy.

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    1. Thank you …The tart was the dessert for a Greek themed BBQ. None of us is overkeen on baklava and there aren’t many good recipes out there for Greek desserts. This one is lovely and really easy. The filling is just melted white chocolate and Greek yoghurt … then topped off with roasted nuts drizzled with honey 🍯

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  2. Good selection of good friends & good times. Thanks for sharing, take care & hugs.

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  3. What a lovely lot of photographs. I envy you having all your friends close by. We have moved around too much to have old friends like that though we do keep in close touch via internet and love it when they are able to visit from South Africa. B and I both went to school in present day Zambia, after 18 years moved independently to Rhodesia, met up again, married and lived there for 20 years before leaving when life changed after Zimbabwe independence, lived in South Africa for 20 years, then moved here to the UK for the last 21 years. Real Nomads!

    I also love the Greek pudding. What proportion of ingredients? Looks delicious. Do you cook the pastry with the filling in or put it in afterwards? x

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    1. I’ve lived in the same town for over 40 years and can’t really imagine being anywhere else now. It is lovely having everyone close by. The tart is really easy … six sheets of filo, brushed with 50g melted butter and blind baked. Then filled with a mixture of 409g melted white chocolate, just cooled a bit, with 280g Greek natural yoghurt … I used fat free. Then just topped with honey roasted cashews mixed with a bit of honey. Enjoy 😊

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    2. How amazing for you and your other half to have ended up together … sounds like it was really meant to be 💜

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  4. How wonderful to have "old" friends, especially when they're close by. You've got some fun photos, keep snapping! And it sounds like a great way to spend your October.

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    1. It certainly is Astrid. We always get together for birthdays so October is always a treat 😃

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