Looking back...

No picture to go with this post, I'm afraid....that computer is out of reach, and this one has none downloaded! We just got back from a very short trip to the West Country (Devon) which was utterly beautiful in the Autumn sunshine. The blue/green sea stretched before us as we came over one of the many hills in the car, dotted with white-sailed yachts and coloured buoys. The park where we walked Alice was full of enormous and beautiful trees in various shades of orange, gold, red and the largest of all - a towering oak, laying a carpet of acorns at our feet, was still completeley and vividly green.
We were there to spend the sad anniversary of my father in law's death two years ago. It hardly seems possible that it is two years since I last saw his spirited face and heard his kind,warm voice. Death is a sad fact of life and must come to us all, I know. But the finality of it is so very cruel. That's it. The world that once contained that person must go on without them. And of course it does and so do we who remain. But how important it is to really cherish those we love, to remind ourselves not to take their presence for granted for one minute.
I don't want this to be a morbid post....I feel reflective and peaceful rather than sad. A candle burns today in remembrance of dearest Jim. And reminds me to count my blessings and to try to overcome the terrible human tendancy to let hours, days, weeks slip by without letting those we adore know just how very much they are loved. x