Bonds - week 11

Not the monetary type or a collective of martini-wielding chaps, but friendship. The sort where you simply pick up where you left off a week, a month, a year or more ago. The sort where if time has passed since your last message or call, you've not 'ghosted' anybody, you've just been busy with life and no one got offended. The sort that might have spanned decades or are equally new. The sort that are as comfortable as your favourite jumper, where you can be you, potty mouth and all.

This is Mrs B. We met through the WI a decade ago. Many a glass of red and a world put to rights before kids. Then we all moved. There's now a two hour car journey, an unreliable motorway, a busy diary and four children under the age of 4 between us so we've not made it to their not-so-new house yet. But they were back down in our neck of the woods this week, so we managed to squeeze in a coffee and a catch up, and it felt so wonderfully jumper-like. As I drove my brood to meet Mrs B's brood (you can't see baby M in this photo but she's there in a baby Bjorn carrier hidden by Mrs B's coat), I remembered that the last time I'd driven to their flat was for Mrs B's baby shower three years ago when I was quietly pregnant but not quite ready to share the news. I love this photo of Mrs B shepherding two very excitable little girls home. Why? Because these little girls have only met three times in their three years and became thick as thieves after their initial shyness. And because A immediately took to Auntie B, seeking her out and insisting that she hold her hand. I wish they lived down the road still, but for now just watching this little friendship blossom makes me so very happy.