Saturday

Life in Durham could not be more perfect!

The sun shines brightly from noon onwards after a spell of clouds and cool temperatures. As the day goes on, the clouds go away and pure blue sky peeps out and remains until darkness takes over. It is not too hot, I am still wearing a vest, black cotton long sleeve shirt and a cashmere cardigan over lightly velveteen flower patterned leggings. I am at the Botanical gardens with a great friend, her husbands 7 year old daughter and Zelda. WE are picnicking, the girls are running around in the trees, making water bottle terrariums with plants and flowers, finding huge Alice in Wonderland Mushrooms, and screaming TIGER!!!  We are lying on the rug, occasionally glancing upwards, catching a charging child in our laps, eating quiche, chocolate ( 70% dark!) , pears, apples and drinking coffee. It is not difficult to soak up the perfume of the garden, relax into the green green freshly mowed lawns, be lulled to sleep by the sun and the tinkling of the water fountain. I do just that, while Zelda, her friend and my friend take an hour long walk through the trails and forest and plants. After ten days of looking after Zelda alone, this is my ME time and I am so enjoying it!

At 11 am my friend arrived with C and she was in her PJ's, so was Zelda, it was a hoot! The girls ate biscuits, played dress up and barbies and occupied themselves in the garden until the sun put his hat on and it was time to go! We drank tea and coffee and chatted away.

After the gardens we went back to my friends parents house. I love it there. Her parents are so welcoming and genuine. I feel like a part of the family. They are Quakers. I love the Quaker style! I have been intrigued by the Quaker philosophy since reading a book in my book club that had a main character who was a Quaker.

Yesterday was the opening of the new Egyptian Gallery dedicated to Learning for school children. I worked on creating the new learning resources for school for this gallery and helped with the preparations of the gallery itself. The opening was really lovely and I met a lot of nice people. I was proud to be a part of it all. The curator gave  a speech and at the end I was thanked along with the other volunteers who also helped. All I need now is a paying job!

I am feeling still ever positive about living here, ever grateful for being able to live here and ever blessed to be among the beauty of the place, both through the people and its landscape.

THANK YOU!