Firstly, a word to all of you who e-mail me and are waiting for replies - Our e-mail is playing silly whatnots just now. If you're waiting for a reply, it is trying to reach you. Leave a comment on the blog if you're waiting for a reply and wondering where it's got to. A mole with a screwdriver would be good.
Well! Yesterday was my dad's 91st birthday, so Tony and I made the long trip to Rothbury in Northumberland where we met Mum, Dad, my sister and her husband, for a pub lunch. Then we took ourselves off to Cragside.
If you feed 'Cragside, Northumberland' into a search engine you should find a bizarre house on a hill with gardens, grounds, woods and water all round it. Woods and water were what we had in mind, and it was a perfect dry, crisp autumn day, with the trees in full autumn glory. An iron bridge over the burn has been opened, and Dad was keen to do the walk over the iron bridge and to the power house. (Cragside was built by an inventor and engineer who used water power from the estate to work electricity and hydraulic lifts in the house.)
We did it. It sounds very simple, but with aged parents, my dodgy back and the weather forecast, it might not have happened. As it was, everything about it - the leaves and cones on the forest floor, moss, trees, water, riverbanks, was so beautiful. The air tasted of autumn. Amazingly, my back didn't give a bit of bother, and I was able to help Mum over the steep bits.
We stopped at my sister's cottage for birthday cake. She had bought two large candles, a 9 and 1, so depending on what went which way round and which way up he could be 61, 19, or 16 if he felt like it. Finally a drive home through some of the loveliest views in the world.
Blessed.
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