Blood is thicker than water

It is a tradition in my family not to spend time with siblings. My father rarely saw his brother and my mother rarely saw hers and in both cases, cousins were never mentioned, although I suspect there were some. I and my siblings have maintained that tradition, as have my son and daughter. There is no animosity, but an acknowledgement that we are all different people, with different interests.

The conversion of Dunn’s Barn to create our new home, has provided an opportunity to see how family members can, and do happily work together. On site at the moment we have a father and his two sons, all clearly able to work as a team. Yesterday, one of Belinda’s cousins was preparing the skirting boards for painting, which his son will be doing later in the week. Another cousin’s son is fitting our bathrooms.

Both painter and plumber are sub-contracted to our builder, but I’m pretty sure that it’s making a difference that they are part of Belinda’s extended family. I think it is a feature of Leiston that its population contains more multi-generational extended families than most towns and that I think is one reason why it’s such a friendly town.