It was Andy’s birthday last week.
It would be rude to say how old she is, but it was a “big-one”.
As we are practising the required social distancing and the grandchildren are back at school, we couldn’t have a big family get together. So instead, we had a day of just the three of us; Andy, me and Emma.
We started with a walk on the hills above Cranleigh (the Surrey Hills part of the North Downs) and sat for quite some time on a convenient bench looking at the view.
As the mist cleared, we could see further and further to the south, in fact, as far as the South Downs.
Cranleigh sits at the foot of the North Downs but within 30 minutes’ drive of the South Downs. It is in a beautiful location.
In the woodland behind us, filming is taking place for the next film in the Jurassic World series. Sometimes walking through the ferns and conifer trees, you can almost imagine a Velociraptor leaping out at you!
We also walked through the village and across the cricket green killing some time in the glorious sunshine before the surprise lunch that we had arranged for Andy at The Richard Onslow pub in the village centre.
A leisurely afternoon spent at home waiting for the children to finish school added to a very restful day.
Another anniversary has seen the 30th year since Martin planted a conker in the front garden of our home.
For the first time it has fruited, and I have managed to harvest 17 conkers (lost a couple crushed under the wheels of traffic) from the tree which now towers 20 feet high.
We took out the growing tip of the tree some years ago to restrict its height.
We have now planted those harvested conkers, and the hope is we will grow some new trees, at least one for each of Martin’s three children and Emma’s two boys.
Perhaps in 30 years they will be telling their children how “Grandad or Great Uncle Martin” once planted a Conker from which their tree grew. How cool would that be?
