Celebration

Although my birthday was a while ago, it fell the day before our holiday so our family gathering was postponed until today. We six met for lunch at Cibo, at Gowkley Moss.

I had not made a cake nor expected any fanfare but, when coffee was served, the music began to play Happy Birthday and this ice cream arrived, complete with candle. A lovely lunch became the more delightful.

Then we parted - B&S and the Flumlet  to walk the dog, ourselves and Miss Flum for a walk round the nearby Bush Estate. At this point I should point out that during the morning we in Suburbia had had a heavy rain shower, so we had changed our 'al fresco' booking to be indoors; we had also put our wellies in the car in anticipation of it being wet. However, it was dry at our restaurant after all. Nonetheless, to save my fancy shoes, I donned the wellies, grabbed a brolly and coat.

At the furthest part of our walk the rain began, then the thunder and a veritable downpour, the trees giving little shelter but, by and large, we were comfortably protected and sloshed our way back to the car through increasing puddles.

Over a cuppa at Miss Flum's house we saw the videos of what was happening in town - several areas were flooded and, indeed, as we drove home, we noticed the usual manholes had been surcharging and their covers raised or washed aside, each now protected by traffic cones.