Today is the day it all starts

Soft blessing of rain
On Friday 16th August 2019 the extended families of my (Leapling) niece, Rebecca, and her fiancé, Marc, gathered under a beautiful pavilion with a countryside view at King’s Croft Hotel in Pontefract. Rain fell like a soft blessing and the service was friendly and profound, as it should be when two people commit to each other in public in front of family and friends.

All the senses in play
Weddings unite. All our eyes were bathed in filters of happiness. All our ears were treated to wishes and hopes, desires and dreams for the couple and for each other. We had a wonderful feast of food and drink. All our hugs and kisses, dance moves – fast and slow – smiles and tears of joy and nostalgia reminded each person of other occasions, other people, including those who were absent and were missed, and other situations. You can’t help contemplate your own life when you see someone embarking on a new phase of theirs.

All the elements throughout the world
Why is marriage still a desirable rite of passage? Before the year 1184, religious leaders in England had nothing to do with weddings and the ceremony itself was only allowed inside churches in the 16th Century. For most of human history, the joining of two people together has been a secular affair, from the pagan woodland ceremonies (using the four elements of Air, Earth, Fire and Water) to the community handfasting represented onstage in Shakespeare plays like As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale. But throughout history, in every country in the world, in very different settings and buildings, following customs and rituals as varied as the people on the planet, humans still want couples to succeed when they join together formally.

Family and friends
I've always loved being a member of an extended family catching up at get-togethers. And it’s always fascinating to get a glimpse into the work and leisure lives of the couple being married. I can honestly say it was a day where goodwill was palpable, where love was, indeed, all around and in the air.

Daddy bear
The father of the bride, my beloved brother Chris, gave a speech from the bottom of his Little House on the Prairie heart. Did he blub a bit? Yes he did. Did I love him all the more? Yes I did. Aaron read the following, the final line of which provides the title of this post, though I’ve always thought (probably the form tutor in me) that every day is a fresh day, a new day, the day it all starts again….

Just two people in love
Today is a day you will always remember
The greatest in anyone's life
You'll start off the day just two people in love
And end it as husband and wife.

It's a brand new beginning, the start of a journey
With moments to cherish and treasure
And although they'll be times when you both disagree
These will surely be outweighed by pleasure

Secrets of marriage
You'll have heard many words of advice in the past
When the secrets of marriage were spoken
But you know that the answers lie hidden inside
Where the bond of true love lies unbroken

Today is the day it all starts
So live happy forever as lovers and friends
It's the dawn of a new life for you
As you stand there together with love in your eyes
From the moment you whisper ‘I do'

And with luck all your hopes and your dreams can be real
May success find its way to your hearts
Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of joys
But today is the day it all starts

Bring me laughter

Sally, Sue (friends from Primary School), me and Birthday Boy, Brian - Mad Hatters all!

Wide horizons
Our good friend, Brian, had a special birthday recently – a fine excuse to return to one of my favourite hotels – The Midland in Morecambe. With its backdrop of wide horizons across the bay to the Lake District. With its ever-changing skies with scudding clouds, sudden acres of blue and plentiful “god rays” revealing sea spouts and turbulent weather in the distance. We didn’t get rained on which was a blessing and we could marvel at the cry of the gulls, the salty spray and the great pleasures of spending time with amici sympatici (sympathetic friends.)

Blowing away the cobwebs and putting the world to rights....

Art Deco
I’ve blogged about this place before (here and here) but it has never failed to impress with its art deco features, Eric Gill sculptures inside and out and atmospheric setting, perfect for film companies to exploit (as indeed they have, often for mystery thrillers – Poirot and The Bay both filmed here.)

The Midland Hotel in Morecambe

Chatter of Mad Hatters
Over dinner, breakfast (and tea in Heysham at the Mad Hatter’s Café!) we put the world to rights talking about our lives, the universe and everything in between. Needless to say the quality of the food at The Midland is very high with sea food an obvious speciality, given the location.

Viking Legends
Walking along the wide promenade to Heysham is a must on visits to The Midland where St Peter’s Church and St Patrick’s chapel are dramatically sited to inspire a sense of History and awe. St Peter’s was consecrated in 967 CE but there is archaeological evidence of an earlier wooden church. My favourite item inside the church is a Viking hogback stone portraying the legends of Sigmund and Sigurd.

Tantalising buried secrets
St Patrick’s chapel on the promontory above St Peter’s is well worth the extra climb. Looked after by the National Trust, its most significant feature is the presence of rock cut graves, probably ossuaries to hold bones, but historical speculation will no doubt continue about these mysterious “coffins,” particularly since further excavation in 1993 revealed over a thousand artefacts left by a hunter-gatherer group from about 1000 BCE. The area has been preserved from development for a future research dig.

Bring me sunshine....
The other “must-do” activity in Morecambe is to pay tribute to Eric Morecambe’s statue by Graham Ibbetson; and take the obligatory photograph before winding through the northern countryside back through Lancashire and into the North Yorkshire moors, stopping, naturally, at Ribblehead for a final treat of Victorian engineering….

Graham Ibbetson's statue of Eric Morecambe and the stunning Ribblehead Viaduct

Garden Rooms at York Gate Garden

An idyllic acre in Adel, Leeds
An Emily birthday trip in July included a visit to York Gate Garden which, I thought, contained flavours of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. It’s a quirky and memorable oasis where Sally and Emily could revel in their creative thoughts about gardening. The place was founded by the (late) members of the Spencer family in 1951 and over subsequent decades developed into its current format with a dedicated staff of gardeners and volunteers. Perennial (a horticultural charity) have looked after the site since 1994.

Garden Rooms
I’d heard the phrase “garden rooms” before and finally fully appreciated it here. Hedges of yew and beech separate small areas which are strangely distinctive, so you feel you are visiting a series of gardens rather than just one. There are formal sections, streams, places to rest, views to inspire wonder and suddenly, a meadow. Well worth feasting your senses for a couple of hours (and feeding your belly if you have time to spend at the café.)

When one door closes

Change is in the air
It was Alexander Graham-Bell, I think, who first set down on paper:

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

Early retirement in 2014 brought for me a different sort of life, as busy as before but not subjected to the timetabled routines of a school day, term and year. I changed job seven times throughout my career and my daughters have each changed at least twice, depending on whether or not you count voluntary work and internships…. I’m a great one for rationalising and not looking back at closed doors. The summer of 2019 marks a new perspective for my family as Emily ends her work for a national charity and begins training to join a much bigger organisation: the NHS. When one door closes, another opens….