Roads to Joy

They say you need to pick the baby leaves of the mixed salad crop so as to enjoy their special piquant flavour and delicacy, and so that’s what we did last evening just before dinner. Very tasty with slices of cherry tomatoes and avocado in a simple olive oil and white balsamic vinegar dressing. Delish!

Today I’ve been challenged to try to mark the formal occasion of our fortieth wedding anniversary. The big day back in ’82 was rather a blur to me, while it was happening, though the photos do help me remember bits and pieces. I particularly recall the police officers attending our flat in Shepherd’s Bush over complaints from the neighbours about the party! But we managed to curtail our enthusiasm in time, without being charged. And then we were married, just in time to emigrate to Canada for a couple of years.

It’s odd to think that these crux points arrive in our lives and while we recognise them as a sort of fulcrum event, it’s more when we look back that we realise just how much of a change was in store. I suppose, in the same sort of way, the beginning of our downsizing adventure may be just that sort of an inflection point.

Anyway, as sobering as these thoughts are, there’s a delightful day ahead: we shall get the ingredients for a wonderful meal in Castle Douglas, and then stop off at the Galloway Activity Centre on our way back, this morning. There we’ll hope to book a two person rowboat for the afternoon, and after lunch we think we’ll try to row across Loch Ken and enjoy the water. Dark glasses and hats will protect us from the glare, but perhaps a few drops of rain will fall. That would be reminiscent, rather, of our frolic through the mist above Niagara Falls on our extended pre-wedding trip across the Canadian continent. To be kissed by the mist is said to bring young couples every happiness, but this folk superstition is probably derived from the original First Nations legend of the so-called ‘maid of the mist‘ for whom life was a never-ending adventure. Whatever the truth of the experience, a few raindrops never hurt anyone, after all.

It promises to be a fun day ahead then, whatever the weather. And we will keep our eyes open to the way life unfolds as we move through it. Meanwhile, it’s a pleasure to realise, and to share, what a joy the last forty years have been.