Memory lane

Had a wonderful day today down memory lane.  My sister had seen that six of the gardens on the road where we grew up were being opened under the Narional Garden Scheme.  We got to Darlington early enough to meet them at church for the service at 10.30, then after coffee it was off to a surprise pre birthday lunch at a lovely pub.
After lunch back to town to start looking at the gardens, the one pictured is our childhood home which was lived in by our family from being built in the 1930s.  My Dad's parents bought it from the builder and then, when they retired to Scarborough, my parents bought it from them in 1959.  After Dad died Mum continued to live ther till she died in 2005 and  we then rented it out for  a number of years till we sold it to the present owners in 2012.  We had a lovely chat with the owners and their daughter and we quite surprised to see that they had not extended the house and externally it looks much the same.  They had altered the garden as it used to be on two levels but I'm sure that Mum and Dad would be very happy to see how good it looks.
While we were there one of the NGS organisers came round and I was surprised again, A and I had been on the same course at Oxford Polytechnic back in the 70s.  I knew that she was living in Darlington but how strange that our paths should cross at that moment.
We toured the rest of the gardens after that meeting up again with A and her husband at the last one.
Back to S & K's for a cuppa and then home in time for B to watch England in the Euros final - the only disappointing part of the day!