Logs For Sale

SATURDAY

The two birthdays lunch - in the end I took both the Mint Chocolate Cheesecake,

and the Raspberry Chocolate Cake ( Note to self : you can re-cook a raw-in-the-middle cake the next day- this one took another hour - especially if you smother it in smooth avocado chocolate icing afterwards), as I was afraid it wasn't big enough for all the guests.

Of course I need not have worried as there were plenty of options including these giant meringues from Carluccios and this beautiful moist Ginger Bread cake.

 Much later, after the party  - my husband managed to stay for the gorgeous buffet spread, but left before the desserts ( I saved some slices of cake for him in a napkin) we took an evening

 river walk along Exeter Quay with the birds.....

and even though it's only the very beginning of August I felt the tiniest sliver of Autumn sadness tremble in the air over the water.

SUNDAY

We continue to have our summer holidays at home - days out in our beautiful West Country - in spite of my fears about my husband's newly developed "only-a-short-walk" syndrome. I tell him we are going to Cheddar Gorge. I'm convinced we've been there before with my parents many years ago. ( It turns out I got the wrong gorge - it was Ebbor Gorge - so no wonder I didn't recognise it.) Although we probably did visit Cheddar Gorge when we were children  -  we used to come on leave to the UK to visit my Uncle and Aunt and cousins in Weston-Super-Mare in the 1960s.

This is the view of Glastonbury Tor  after the steep climb through the woods to the top of the Gorge.

View from our picnic spot under the shade of a hawthorne tree in a meadow of grasses and thistles.

 After the picnic, even my husband lies back and looks at the sky for a few minutes......I'm in heaven..... could rest there forever...... but when he says "How long do you want to stay here?" I know it's time to go. 

The gorge is 3 miles long - the longest one in England.

This gorgeous white dog is at the end of the path when we step out onto the road after the climb back down. I want to cross the road - carry on to the other side - finish the circular walk back to Cheddar Village where we started. But my husband has had enough and we start back along the road.

The way is narrow and twisty with the sides of the gorge towering above us and the cars keep whizzing round the blind bends in the road. I forget I was in heaven a while ago... on top of the world listening to the birds .....and keep yanking at my husband's sleeve, as if he was a child, to keep him on the grass verge which keeps disappearing,..... as if I'm afraid he'll get hurt..... but really I'm cross because I hate walking on tarmac and I want to finish the walk though the woods and back up to the view at the top...... I want to have my own way. And after a while I remember it's only my little girl having a tantrum  inside me -  the little What about ME? voice...and  I give her some attention ....some loving.....some listening.

Then it's much easier to take my husband's hand and walk beside him, safely along the road and into the village where we started.

TODAY

After lunch, after his rest, I suggest to my husband we go for a walk. He says he'd like to go to the Canal at Tiverton. But only for an ice-cream  - not for a walk. After yesterday I bite back my protests and agree. He knows the way to Tiverton. On Friday he set off there with a friend in the car. After a while she noticed he was on the wrong road. She pointed it out. He said he had no idea where he was.  Which is the first time that's happened. In the end they went to a different place. Today he takes the right road.

This is the boat called The Duck's Ditty, moored on the canal where they sell ice-cream and tea and beer. It's raining so we sit inside and my husband orders a rum and raisin cone to have with a glass of hot chocolate. I can't face an ice-cream but drink the hot chocolate and watch the rain drops bouncing off the surface of the water and the ducks and the swans ignoring it all.

On the way home we pass a sign which says LOGS FOR SALE.

If you passed us in the car and looked inside you'd just see a middle aged couple driving along talking to each other. You'd never guess that the man is saying,

Can you tell me what logs are?

 Or that as the woman explains about wood and trees and fires in houses that in that moment she thinks she may go mad....