Our Ruby Wedding Anniversary

December 15th marked our 40th Wedding Anniversary. On 13th, Grace and I drove to Devizes in Wiltshire, to stay in a house there for the week. We arrived around 1:30pm, and met the delightful Sue, co-owner of the house, who made us very welcome and showed us around. My sister Jill and her husband Rod arrived later, and we spent a good evening together, catching up, not having seen each other for over two years.

The kids arrived the next morning, bringing with them food to feed an army, it seemed! and for the next several hours Naomi and Eddie were hard at work in the kitchen.

We were joined in due course by Grace's three sisters, brother-in-law Mike, and niece Kathryn with son Jake and partner Alistair (Kathryn has the distinction of being the only one of our several nieces and nephews who was present at our wedding, so it was very fitting that she should be there), and Grace and I were given some lovely, generous presents. At lunchtime, Naomi served up a fantastic buffet meal of some ten savoury dishes with salads and sauces, plus an amazing chocolate cake, and a huge Eton Mess - I was too busy eating to get photos of all of it!

Flowers decorated the dining room.

After the meal, we enjoyed an afternoon of games, chat and much laughter. It was an excellent day, and a superb way to spend this anniversary of ours.

Some of the family aren't very familiar with canal life, so I put together a slideshow to give them something of an idea.

With a couple of hours or so to drive back to Somerset, Grace's side of the family left later that evening, while Jill, Rod and our kids stayed the night. Our thanks go to them all for sharing a memorable day with us.