Memories. On what would have been your birthday

These are probably amongst the last photos I ever took of Matthew , that last lovely family holiday in the summer of 2006.
We were altogether along with Heidi, his young wife, and his brother and two of his friends staying in a large rented cottage in Grasmere.
It was the hottest sunniest week we had ever known up in the Lake District that year.
We all just so enjoyed the novelty of being able to walk everywhere without being soaked and climbed the fells looking out over the stunning landscapes below, basking in the heat of the day.
We would then get together later to eat.
On this particular day, Stephen and I and Matt and Heidi had walked what is known as the Rydal Round, Starting in Grasmere by Wordsworth’s cottage and then going on a circular route which looked down on the lovely sparkling Grasmere Lake, and eventually descended to cross the road and over the River Rothay up on to the opposite fell side onto Loughrigg Terrace, The panoramas from there are just so beautiful looking down across the Lake to the surrounding fells. The fell,sides covered in deep swathes of dense bracken.
We stopped to have a picnic having descended once more, by the river in the welcome shade of the trees.
Matt enjoyed cooling off in the crystal clear water.
I took the photo,
Later we went to Ambleside and had a short cruise on Lake Windermere thinking it would be cooler on the water!
We almost stuck to our seats in the heat!
The other photo is Matt and Heidi on the boat.,
In a few short weeks he was no longer with us, one of the victims of a terrible accident on the M6 motorway, which claimed four lives, and changed all of ours forever,
After 19 years now, that memory of our last precious family holiday is as vivid now as if it was yesterday. Frozen in time.
And captured in snapshots..
So today on what would’ve been his 49th birthday, we are going to Stratford upon Avon, for Afternoon Tea in his
memory. It is also Shakespeare’s birthday!