38

Yesterday was my birthday, I turned 38… that’s such a big number! I had a lovely day though, it was almost worth getting another year older for. Almost.

We started the day bright and early with a dippy egg and soldiers, then walked down to Southampton Common – all this is literally a 7-and-a-half minute walk from my front door step…

Not only was it the hottest day of the year so far, it was also the BBCs Springwatch Festival; lots of marquees and stalls all dedicted to celebrating the natural world – so lovely! That’s the sort of thing we really should be celebrating more. I liked the ‘Make Your Own Owl’ stand best, I was a bit self-conscious that everyone making the owls were about 30 years younger than me, so instead I took this photo and instructed Mark to memorise the design and make me one just like it!

We were given score sheets to spot as many native leaves as we could, but not everyone was taking it as seriously as me…

After revelling in nature for a bit longer we decided to walk into town via the lovely parks that stem there way through the length of the city…

The rose gardens were amazing, and you could smell the lavender well before you could actually see it…

As we were in town it seemed churlish not to indulge in just a little retail therapy, especially as I was with Mark and had the once-a-year excuse of ‘it’s my birthday’ to allow me access to any shop I chose…

Then after a Costa coffee for lunch which included a lemon muffin with 38 candles (not really, thank goodness, fire risk!), it was a quick hop on the bus home…

You’ll be pleased to hear I stopped taking photos at this point. Apart from this one (so I could check for wrinkles/age-spots/grey-hairs/moustache)…

The day carried on into a just as lovely an evening, with presents and visitors and a big bowl of steaming chilli for dinner and a bottle of Mateus Rose (aren’t I classy) just for me!