December 29th and this week we celebrated 39 years of marriage.  Our first three years were spent in Gospel Oak where we lived next door to Mr and Mrs Knight who were very ancient ( in their nineties) full of gardening advice and still had a Rayburn to heat their water and their living room.  I used to cut the grass with a pair of shears until Mr Knight lent me his roller mower to trim the pocket handkerchief sized lawn.

After Oak Village we tried our hand at small holding in Devon, living in a thatched cottage ( the Old Forge) which came with two fields across the lane from the house and a collection of ramshackle barns and outbuildings.  It was fun, it was cold, we were young and we milked two goats by hand twice a day, spun the wool from our small flock of sheep and kept chicken and ducks and two jersey calves.  Fruit and vegetables were plentiful and organic and grew easily in the well fertilised garden that had been nourished with a hundred years of horse manure from the days when the blacksmith shod the hooves of the local horses.

Now, after raising the children in London, we have embarked on a new adventure with five acres, central heating ( no ice inside the window panes this time we hope! ) and modern power tools and a Japanese mini tractor.

So today we celebrated with some family and two old school friends and other, more recent friends. Jeremy gave two children and one “game” adult a ride in the trailer and their cheeks were glowing when they came in for tea.

What a lovely day – cheers!