Wartime wedding

My parents were married 75 years ago today, at The Oratory, Birmingham. This photograph shows them as gay young things, in August 1938.

Laden

My mother gave her son-in-law a Cox's Orange Pippin sapling. She died in 1993, so it is now well established - and this year well loaded.

Besides apples, Bill has several extremely productive pear trees in his orchard: he has rigged up an impressive scratter in his garage, worthy of Heath Robinson himself: this year's resultant juice is well on its way to becoming next year's perry. Bill describes his perry-making activities in this fine piece he has written for his parish magazine; and you can email him via this link if you would like to enquire about buying his perry. (It's delicious!)

10 years on

For the second time this week, I found myself catching a train from Cheltenham Station to go in the opposite direction to the race crowds. (I left it a bit later today, so was all but swept aside by the incoming tide on Platform 2.) Arriving in a rainy Sheffield soon after Midday, I saw that I could catch a tram to the City Centre: all very clean and efficient, and they accept bus passes. Then, on the look out for the tourist information office I found myself passing St Marie's Cathedral, where a mass was just starting. What luck! Because it's exactly ten years today that my mother (Mary) died.