another year, another birthday

The day was planned by S and as is typical of him, it went like clockwork. I woke up in a funk - my thesis weighing heavy on my mind but I banished the thought, choosing instead to thoroughly enjoy the day. Usually, I insist on opening at least a few cards at the stroke of midnight, before I go to sleep, but showed a lot of restraint this year, I must be maturing.

The weather forecast was bleagh - not terribly inspiring for a day out and I considered staying home to get work done but at the end of the day, I was glad S twisted my arm into going out.

My big day began at Harewood House

where we spent a while exploring the beautifully manicured gardens and grounds. 

I particularly enjoyed the bird garden,

and countless beautiful flowers all over the place

After seeing all I cared to (we're saving some things to discover on our next visit), S found us a little patch of grass on which to picnic. Then I, feeling cheeky (and because it was my special day and why not?), told the dude in the ice-cream shack that it was my birthday and so got an extra scoop of vanilla (it's always vanilla) with flake! 

After lunch, S and I headed inside for a tour of the house (sorry, photography not allowed). As usual it was nice to see how things were done way back when. 

We left Harewood just after 3 o'clock and the next stop was the "pick your own" farm on the way home.

We weren't so lucky to escape the rain and got drizzled on as we picked: tayberries, blackcurrants, raspberries, redcurrants, gooseberries and strawberries. 

Back in town, we called by the bank to pay in birthday monies (henceforth known as The Knit Nation Fund) and a quick stop for some Laura Ashley twee on sale. I am not to be blamed for this lapse, I spent last weekend sipping tea from dainty little teacups while eating sandwiches off beautiful china and flicking through many, many, many issues of House and Garden!

As a treat to myself I splashed out on:

{Amy Butler fabric}

{a needle gauge}

and

                                  {a Norwegian knitting thimble}

Among the many texts and phone calls (I had the birthday song sang to me first by my niece and nephew  then again by my friend's kids! both times I was tickled silly.) was one call I didn't see coming. My best friend from high school, whom I hadn't seen or spoken to since our trip to Amsterdam in 2004, called to wish me a happy birthday! We'd drifted apart due to age (and discovering very different interests) and migrating (me to North America and she to Africa) but we're both back here now and have plans to see each other either this weekend or next.

And now, it's back to the grindstone.