Happy Birthday

I give thanks for a late great birthday treat - a day out with Laura to a National Trust property in the next county. I'd been once before some years ago but got sidetracked in the extensive gorgeous grounds, so this time was determined to see some of the medieval and Tudor treasures inside...and she'd been as a ten year old and had forgotten a lot. As a result, as ladies rather fond of needlecraft, we were astonished and delighted by a profusion of domestic textiles, embroideries and quilting and tapestries as well as the exquisite wood carvings and wonderful higgeldy piggeldy architecture of nooks and twisted stairs, cobbles and leaded windows...

I give thanks for a feast for the taste buds as well as the eyes, with a sharing picnic of favorite assorted treats which we ate on a bench over looking a quintessential English country garden. I wasn't up for walking far, but after a rest I walked as far as I could through all the lush and fragrant loveliness before we partaking of afternoon repast of Danish pastries provided by Laura and a flask of tea provided by me, by a pond with waterlilies and dragonflies.

I give thanks for a good friendship unbroken by time spent apart...For the sun breaking through the murky clouds we set off in...For stopping at one of the roadside honesty stalls to buy potatoes, strawberries and pinks... For the traffic being kind and having someone to drive me through it... For the variety of beautiful countryside hereabouts... For having assorted leftovers for tea and nothing else to do all weekend as, though very happily and pleasantly so, I am also very tired and rather stiff and sore!