The day Before....

I haven't seen a sparrow on the bird feeder before.

They usually dive in to the seeds scattered on the table ...

and they are the only ones who use the ground feeder.

I only saw a robin briefly this morning hopping on the hand rail by the steps leading down to the swimming pool. 

It has been another glorious hot September day.

 A  single chestnut  fallen from the tree by the stream....my own chestnuts...amazing.

I looked up from my endless weeding this afternoon to see this lovely balloon floating above the silver birch trees....

I could hear the roar of the fire in the basket....

and I remembered the trip Robin and I took in  a hot air balloon over the fields near Honiton  a few years ago - a wedding anniversary gift from the family.

 I have been in and out of the garden all day.

It was a day as beautiful as this 32 years ago...the day before we got married...I spent most of it cooking quiches for my wedding breakfast...at a friend's house....and after each one I'd go out into her garden and have a cigarette and a black coffee in the sunshine. And cry a bit with tiredness and overwhelm and the emotion of it all.

And much later that evening I remember cutting Robin's hair at the table in my sister's farmhouse kitchen....I was staying with my parents and he was staying with his and I think his mother disapproved of us seeing each other the night before our wedding!

26th September 2015 with one of our sweet great nieces.

26th September 2016.

I have been aching all day with remembrance....missing him so much.