What A Way To Start The Day,

Diana had worked so hard,

 to make the day perfect,

and I did not know a thing about it, 

I wondered how Diana had obtained the helium for the balloons, and here was the answer, a canister of helium,

 also a custom made birthday card,

 and a lovely bunch of flowers for the table,

 it was perfect,

 the big 70,

and off they floated to the ceiling,

in the afternoon, coffee instead of tea and cake,

boots on and out,

we had decided to take a walk to look at the bluebells in the park

it was a glorious day,

the cherry blossoms out,

we walk down to the dip in the road,

and up again,

on the roadside,

we stopped to look at some of the bluebells,

and nice they were too,

we passed the Foxgrove club, which closed for good a few years ago,

and soon found ourselves,

in bluebell heaven,

they were everywhere,

but I have to say the camera does not do them justice,

I thought there would be crowds of people here,

but it was surprisingly quiet,

sound advice,

and we did keep to the paths,

a wicker bumble bee, seemed strangely out of place,

a quick pose,

and we were off past the bamboo,

walking to more swaths of bluebells,

what a lovely walk, made more so by the sound of so many birds,

there was no background noise of traffic,

just the very occasional train in the far distance,

and that was it, peace and quiet,

except the birds,

it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves,

we had walked to the far side of the woods, 

the flowers now becoming thin on the ground,

Diana stopped to have one last close up look,

as a single runner was out exercising,

left or right?

we chose left,

and made our way toward the now refurbished buildings, 

next to the mansion house,

we made our way down to the lake, 

I tried photographing between the wire,

and here it is,

in the distance some cherry trees were putting on a good show,

we walked into the garden,

and took a right, 

to look at the trees,

we both hoped that there were no police about,

as we sat down,

yes I know I could be fined for sitting down in the park, but there it is,

 we just had to have a selfie,

 one for the album,

 ah! so sweet!

we definitely picked the right time to look at the cherry blossom,

there was masses of it,

with only a few petals on the ground,

every branch,

looking so perfect against the blue sky,

we made our way back into the garden,

passing the table where we had our picnic last year,

the flower beds looking lovely,

as were the tulips,

I know keep off of the grass!

years ago this round bed used to be a fish pond,

looking across the beds towards the cherry trees, in case you are wondering why all of this looks so green, the entire garden has a underground watering system, the council are no fools, they know how to get around their own hose pipe ban!

we both remarked on the absence of squirrels, there is normally so many of them, but today we saw just one,

in the litter bin,

out of the garden,

and up the hill,

towards the mansion house,

lots of open space here,

this was at one time a public golf course,

one of the most successful in the country,

but it was thought it would benefit more people as a park,

so it was closed,

which was great news for everyone,

except the golfers!

we started on our way back,

a last look,

and we were in the road home, just after we arrived, we had a telephone call from Steve and Kai, Steve said look out of the window, and there they were in the car park, it seemed so strange having a telephone call and seeing them without being able to meet up,

for our evening meal Diana had made a seafood starter, which looked and was delicious,

and with many thanks to Steve, out with the bubbly,

 easy does it,

 first finish the sherry,

 the big 70,

and up to the ceiling they went,  

 before our main course,

 I opened one present, 

 I had no idea what it was,

 it was a total surprise, 

 but I knew for the packaging it had come from Aspinal of London

  and I now knew what they were,

 Diana had bought me a pair of gloves, 

 and as the song walk like an Egyptian was playing, 

I had to mime along,

whilst Diana was in the kitchen, I played with some of the birthday decorations on the table,

our main course,

Diana had bought a steak for each of us, with vegetables,

time for the red wine,

for our dessert another surprise, 

 a huge birthday cake, diet starts next week, well we have to finish it first! 

 now time for my last two presents from Diana,

 I could not believe my eyes, the bottle, shaped like a 18th Century onion bottle totally confused me, and inside the bottle? 

 Dominican rum from Kirk & Sweeney, 

 complete with its Coast Guard citation,

on the reverse the bottle number, what a treat,

 but there was more to come,

what was in the box?

I soon knew,

a pair of Royal Scot Crystal tumblers, 

 I thought it best to try one,

 well I wanted to make sure the glass worked!

and it did! many many thanks to everyone that made my day so memorable, especially the love of my life Diana, who put so much love into the day,

and now for a bit of fun, there was some helium left in the canister, so we just had to make the video above, we spent the rest of the evening listening to music, again many thanks indeed to everyone, as this is a large post, I am only making this one post today, and as the midnight hour approached we were off to bed.