Hopping around the country, working here and there, I gather ideas along the way.  Whilst In Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago, I came across these.

Well, I’ll bet you’d have wanted a closer look at that pot too!  And then, having taken a closer look and tried to figure out how it was made (and failed), you’d have taken down the details from the ladies who’d been to the class and decided to have a go yourself, wouldn’t you?

Which is how I came to be in the garden centre this morning, buying a couple of plants because my “starter kit” came the other day and I’m looking forward to having a go.  But oh my, what a collection of sour faced people were there!  I know, it was a chilly day.  It had even tried to snow a little on the way there.    Enough reason to be miserable?  I don’t think so!

We were in Cambridge for a couple of days last week, remembering when we drove there at least six times a year at the start and end of each term, taking Edward and his belongings down this small drive into Peterhouse to a room with his name above the door.

For a few hours, we were proud parents again.  That’s not to say we aren’t always proud parents, of course, but it was especially lovely to revisit those days and spend a while “remembering that time when…”

Though I was teaching at the Cambridge WI office in Girton all day, we enjoyed a sunny afternoon in the city, musing over what had changed and what hadn’t, for it’s ten years or so since we’d been here.

We’d forgotten the bikes.  Not so much those parked here and there and chained to every railing and cycle park, but those being ridden rather fast, on the pavement and the wrong way up a street, catching us unawares.

I’d forgotten – or perhaps never really noticed – the number of people standing around on the streets smoking as well.  And those groups of youngsters from language schools!  On one corner, I stood and waited for them to pass, determined I was not going to step out into the road because one bunch was completely unaware of anyone else around them. 

Maybe I was the sour faced, miserable old woman on that occasion, then?  There’s no doubt that we were probably twice the average age of most people in town that afternoon and I’ll admit, I did let a couple of small things get to me.  But standing there on Kings Parade, we couldn’t help but count our blessings and thank goodness for bright young things, for sunny afternoons and happy memories, for no longer having to worry about examinations and suchlike but most immediately that afternoon, for Heffers bookshop!

Life is too short to be grumpy.