August 13, 2012
-
07/22/08 – Just a perfect day.
Hi Guys!
As you know, yesterday was the day that two long~time former members of Lurkers Anonymous finally got together to lay all previous worries aside and meet up. At last! And not before time, either!
Kaz the Mare met me at the station with her daughter, and we decided to just take the day as it came. We’d originally planned to visit Kaz’s allotment first to work up a sweat and get stuck into a bit of digging on J’s flower patch. But we ended up taking a drive to Heptonstall, a beautiful ‘Oldey Worldey’ area where me and Geoff spent a fair bit of time as kids ~ our father’s parents lived there, and we used to have a whole lot of fun with our cousins Denise, Yvonne and Anthony.
After a short while, I started getting flashbacks of memory, and one of the highlights of those couple of hours was this…
Are you watching, Kidder?!It was a strange feeling, seeing those bungalows… I hadn’t been there in thirty years or more! But cool, too. Thanks Mare! That was such a great surprise.
We called back to Kaz’s place after that, and had a quick bite of lunch before heading off for the REAL highlight of the day ~ The Allotment! Kaz has only had her plot for a short while, and has been going great guns to get it in working order. (From what she told me, it was practically a FIELD when she first took it on! She certainly has more courage than me!). The views were absolutely stunning ~ I couldn’t imagine what made the previous owner give it up. Pure heaven! And we were so lucky with the weather, too ~ Kaz said it’s the first time she’s been to the allotment without having to duck between the raindrops.
We spent a good hour or so with J, getting her own plot dug over, dug out, manured, composted, and planted. HARD work! But well worth the effort.
After that gargantuan effort for us all, we took a drive around the local area ~ up and down roads so narrow, windy, and steep it was like being on a rollercoaster! And Kaz goes running around there!! I always had my suspicions she’s a crazy lady ~ I just hadn’t figured on how crazy! Hehehehe!
We did take a bit of time out to sit a spell and just enjoy the views, too. Keeping an eye on the time so I didn’t end up stranded at the station, we had a quick wash and brush~up back at the house before calling at a pub for a well~deserved meal. The portions were enormous! You could get a good workout running up and down the piles of mash!
All too soon, after hugs all round and promises to swap email addresses between me and J, I was back on the train to Liverpool. I’d intended to blog about our day last night, but was too pooped to even have a bath! I’m lying here in bed after canceling my shift this afternoon because I ache so much in places I didn’t know existed, typing this with the ingrained soil from yesterday still under my nails, hehehe. It seems fitting, somehow.
In all, we had a perfect day ~ it was just too short! Kaz is a great lady, and I feel especially close to her as she’s an American who made the transatlantic hop to England years ago… a treasure trove of advice, the promise of an understanding ear if I should ever need it. And her daughter is simply a joy! Definitely her mother’s daughter, and it was the icing on the cake that she was there to spend the day with us, too. I couldn’t have asked for more!
Thanks Mare. And you, too, J.
