Memory Keeper...

Thank you all so much for your good wishes for our 30th Wedding Anniversary yesterday.  We had a fantastic night celebrating our anniversary with Ele, Kenny, Agnes and Adrian.  

The meal and service at Delivino was excellent as ever.  Such a great atmosphere.  Lots of love and lots of laughter round the table.

The laughter continued when we returned home.  I took the pic in extras of the gang chatting and laughing with Lola looking on trying to work out how to make space for herself on her sofa.  So many interlopers!  :-))  

I love when I take a decent photo of a landscape or a flower macro, but it's these silly little shots of family and friends, taken in the moment, that mean the most to me.  Those ordinary moments in my ordinary life that speak of love, shared history and connection.  Priceless.

The second photo in extras of my headdress and veil were meant to be my blip yesterday but I didn't have time to edit and upload so took a phone shot instead.  The veil in the shot was David's mum's wedding veil. The third extra shows David's mum and Dad, and David and I on our respective wedding days.  The photos were taken 32 years apart (almost to the day) and we are standing on the same church step and I am wearing her veil.  It was my something old and some thing borrowed.  

I love that we were married in the same church as David's mum and dad and I get a lump in my throat when I look at the two photos together.  Two couples setting out in married life, excited about the future and all the possibilities it holds.

Sadly David's mum was widowed in her 40s after 23 years of marriage.  I know how lucky David and I are to have celebrated 30 years of marriage and never take a second of it for granted.

My blip today is my anniversary gift from David.  A memory keeper locket that holds six photographs.  I knew he had bought it for me as he thought I would like to choose the photos to put inside (you email the pics to the jeweller and they print them to fit the locket and put them in for you) so had to tell me in advance.  I chose a wedding shot of us, a photo of my mum and me on her 70th birthday, one of David's mum and me on St Andrew's beach on the last holiday she had with us just over a year before she passed away, a photo of me with my gran and grandpa taken on holiday in 1984, a photo of Alan and me when he was still small enough to fit on my knee to get cuddles (and want cuddles :-), and a family shot of us on the day we collected Lola.  

I knew I would love the locket but was unprepared for how emotional l felt at opening it and seeing all the photos appear before me.  A lifetime of love held in a little golden sphere.  I love it.

So, back to today :-))

Everyone stayed over and we were all up fairly early despite our late night. 

They all headed off after breakfast and we had just enough time to sit and re-charge our batteries for an hour, before getting ready to go and meet our friends Drew and Audrey who are on their annual jolly to Gleneagles.

We had a lovely lunch and catch up with them at the Dormy Clubhouse.  Sadly the weather had turned from yesterday's sunshine to rain so there was no view of Glendevon from the restaurant but we were so busy blethering I'm not sure we would have noticed if there had been.

Drew and Audrey have lived abroad and in England for over twenty years but are now in the early planning stages of moving back home.  It probably won't happen for two or three years but over the last year they've been trying to decide where in Scotland they would like to move to.  We were delighted to hear today that our wee town is no 1 on their list.  I hope it comes to pass as it would be great to have them near.

Back home by 6.30pm and the fun of the last two days has finally caught up with us.  We've not done much this evening at all other than nod off.  Alan's off on his first holiday without us tomorrow but thankfully his support team have got him all organised.  

It will be very strange to wave him off knowing he won't be back for a week!  We'll have an empty!  lol