Annie Smith's memorial

This is the grave of Annie Smith, a loving wife and noble mother. She died in April 1934, aged 52. As you can see, she has a fabulous tomb and monument. But now the tomb-cover is cracked and wild valerian grows over her grave. This does not deter the photographers....

We live very close to a large cemetery, which is also managed as a nature reserve by the green spaces team. One of the joys of this arrangement is that, in the late spring evenings, when my blip plans have gone awry, I can just nip up to the graveyard for a grave-blip. There is no shortage of famous people buried there, but I prefer the tombs of the forgotten. They had their lives, and were truly loved and missed, and now they're part of the green space again. Annie Smith died aged just 52 (I hope that's not an omen, said the 51-year-old nervously).

Feeling much better today, if not exactly up for runnning a mile, or for leadership of a political party! Have managed to stay up all day, though it's been an effort at times. My current audiobook is A Mile of River by Judith Alnatt, and I can't praise it highly enough. Set on a farm in the Midlands in the searing hot drought of 1976, it evokes the time, the routines and the heat like no other novel I've ever read.

I'm going to Cheltenham tomorrow, I hope, to meet a foodie friend. He says that a branch of Carluccio's has just opened, but
"You wouldn't want to eat there".
"Why not?" I text back. "Gluten-free options, Italian food, seafood, and lashings of chocolate sauce ... what's not to like?"
We have a great arrangement, this friend and I. Last year I helped him make a claim on, not PPI, but something like that. and he got shedloads of money, and decided to set it aside for our mutual meal fund. Now that's what I call Noble!

PS I changed the crop on this. Not so dark now, LOL