A quiet(ish) day

The plan was to have a day of complete rest.

The first text message came at 0700 and there were about 10 calls during the first part of the morning. I'm so glad I did not have a clerical job in my former life. I don't think I would have coped.

It was a beautiful day, so I set off late morning and drove to Wark. It was easy to cross the river to Gold Island. The bluebells are stunning. I think the rain has helped. In a couple more days they will be fully out and I must go again. 

I was delighted to see this lovely flower too. It is Cardamine pratensis, known to many as lady's smock, but I prefer the cuckoo flower. 

The stitchwort is beginning to flower. The primroses are nearly finished. There are swathes of dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis), a few wood anemones, lesser celandine and all dominated by the bluebells. Dandelions are carpeting the road verges and the gorse looks very yellow!

I sat on a bench and watched a family of three children, two dogs, a father and mother as they played by the water's edge of the North Tyne. Idyllic.

This afternoon I went to hear Max Adams and Nell Stevens, authors, in a joint session in the Hexham Book Festival. You can read about their session here.

It was such a good discussion between the two of them and it was well chaired by Jacqui Hodgson. She let each one have time to answer the questions she gave. There was no sense of her just rushing through a list she had prepared.

Both have written about women. Max said he has had some stick because he is not a female author (but I know he would be able to cope with that). He wanted to write about people who fascinated him. His mother was one of 14 children, most of whom were female and Max remembers the wonderful relationships he had as a nephew to them.

Nell was doing her PhD when she fell in love with Elizabeth Gaskell. She researched through her letters. The books sounds very personal and quite unlike any biography I have read.

I bought both books!

I'm back to sorting out bookings for tomorrow, but  it's been a restful day.