The gathering of the Clans

There are 2 sorts of family gatherings, those that you look forward to and those that are always going to be onerous.

Luckily, we recently went to one of former events this last weekend my father-in-law's celebration of his 70th birthday.

Tel likes his cigar on his birthday and at Xmas

We all gathered at the Red Lion in Clanville (near Andover) for a family meal in the evening of Saturday 9th. Thirteen of us, from 4 family groups arrived Grandparents, Aunts, In-laws and Grandchildren all made the trip to the tiny village of Clanville in the late Spring sun to celebrate and hear all his old stories again (but we don't mind).

Sunlight on the leaves

Having all arrived, ordered the food and had our aperitifs we moved into the restaurant. The mussels were great, but what analysis is there in the empty shells?

Au Naturale or

Stacked?

We also consumed some alcohol.

Toasted the birthday boy.

and generally had a great time.

And next weekend we have another one, my brother-in-law's 50th, woo hoo!