Is That A Brownie?

Many of you will be distracted by the gorgeous child sitting on Isabelle's lap in this photo. I am not. I can't take my eye off the square of chocolate something that is on the plate in front of me. But Redwood is a magical kid and I got to spend several days in her presence. She's got Isabelle's beauty and Kevin's swagger. She charmed Larry and Thomas. In fact, Larry says she's a 'lovely girl.' Jillian only smiled mysteriously when I asked what her opinion was.

Having people return to the community is so dang fun! Like any family or group of friends, the stories abound, the laughs about the good days and the bad days seem so warm and wonderful. I especially enjoyed hearing Kevin and Gosia recount the ill-fated hiking adventure in Donegal. Whose fault was it that they were climbing Slieve League in inclement weather? I am just glad they made it back to tell the tale.
I had about 8 whole minutes of conversation with Isabelle but her calm presence in the house made up for the lack of chat. And she made some tasty recipe with spuds and courgette that ranks up there with mushroom gravy.

Following hard on the heels of the summer visits, we've just 'celebrated' our farewell to Debbie, who will be reporting back to us from L'Arche in Germany, and Barbara. Barbara must return to Hungary to finish her thesis and then she'll come back to join us again in February! All this and the glad return of James and Faythe to L'Arche Belfast can only point to one thing: people love this community too much to go away for long.