*Twinkle*s family arrived yesterday. I was a little nervous about the meeting of the parents, what with mine being completely crazy.

Thankfully, it went really really well, with *Twinkle*s parents saying afterwards that they found it hard to stop laughing (that’ll be dad’s humour which does indeed seem to cross international borders).

After the initial meeting, and before supper, *Twinkle*, her family and I made our way to the local Woodland Trust Millennium Wood. Three years ago I found a little sprouting acorn on the Welsh Garden Project. I planted it, and it’s now a healthy baby, about 2 foot tall.

With *Twinkle* and I soon leaving to live in Japan, we thought it would be nice to leave a symbol of our relationship here in the UK, something that would grow stronger over time (and suck up the Co2 that we breathe out during our future visits to the UK).

Thus, last night, having been granted permission by the Woodland Trust, *Twinkle*s parents, sister and the two of us cleared a patch of bracken and brambles in the Millennium Wood, dug a deep hole and planted our oak tree.