when bloggers meet

We are still enjoying our Byron Bay bliss. On Sunday I asked our dear friend David, who we stay with each year, if I could invite some friends over for a chai, "They're coming up from Bellingen and staying in Mullum". In his usual generous and gracious way he said,"Sure that's fine". I added, "There's one detail that I have to tell you and that is, I've never met them before". We both cracked up laughing and when the laughter settled, "They're your friends and you've never met them before?" he quizzed me. "We met online. Jay is a blogging friend," I explained.

And so. It happened! The super lovely Jay whose blog and the trees was one of the first to capture my undivided daily attention came to visit with her beautiful family. Before they arrived I confessed to my friend Ruth that I was feeling a bit nervous. But I needn't have been nervous Jay, Scott, Poe and Ilo were every bit as delightful in real life as they are online. They arrived with warm smiles and hugs, nuts and berries and rhubarb grown in Bellingen. We settled on to blankets on the lawn, drank chai and chatted while the children played tug-of-war and ran around playing ball.

I was first drawn into Jay's blog by her photos, her sense of humour and the warmth that she conveys in  her posts. Jay and Scott made the move with their children Poe and Ilo from Sydney to Bellingen 16 months ago and I admired that because in time moving north is on Pete and my wishlist too. Coupled with the fact that I have great memories of Bellingen from a time Pete and I spent there about seven years ago, Jay's blog has all the ingredients to keep me happily reading along.

On Monday morning when I was sifting through the photos my friend Michael had snapped of Jay and I (just look past my current hairstyle that is an unintended cross between Farrah Fawcett and Suzi Quatro), my friend Ruth wandered in and we sat looking at photos and chatting about blogs. Ruth is mama to one year old twins and was there with her family to meet Jay, Scott, Ilo and Poe. Ruth is not a blogger I showed her and the trees and she said "ooooh isn't it beautiful. I can see how you can fall in love with a family you've never met!"