35 years!

Monday
Roger took the day off today so we could celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. The day got off to a great start. We were sitting in bed, drinking our morning cup of tea and listening to WGUC, our classical music station, when what should they play but William Waltons Crown Imperial March - the music we had to come out of the church at the end of our wedding! It's not played that often, so to hear it on our wedding anniversary was really neat. The music has an interesting history. Walton composed the march originally for the coronation of King Edward VIII. However, he of course abdicated, so it was then performed at the coronation of King George VI in 1937. Crown Imperial was also performed at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, along with another Coronation March written by Walton, Orb and Sceptre. It was performed again much more recently as the recessional piece to the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29th April 2011. After breakfast, we made a picnic and drove out to the Edge of Appalachia Preserve in Adams County, about 75 miles east of Cincinnati. The day was rather overcast at this point, though the sun periodically made an effort to break through the cloud cover. The name of the preserve comes from the location on the western flank or "edge" of the Appalachian Escarpment. We took the trail up to Buzzardroost Rock. Its a beautiful trail, especially at this time of year, when much of the slopes are covered with wildflowers - trillium, wild columbine, wood poppy, blue phlox and American dog violet were some of the ones we saw today. As we walked, the sun finally broke through the cloud and we enjoyed most of the walk in lovely sunshine. The trail ends at this rocky outcrop, named Buzzardroost rock, where often you will see turkey vultures soaring overhead. However, they weren't very much in evidence today. If you'd care to see some more pictures from the trail, you can see them here. Back at the car, we then proceeded to a small Amish community which has grown up in Adams County since the mid 1970s. We stopped at an Amish store and bought some home-made Strawberry and rhubarb jam and old-fashioned marmalade - I shall look forward to some on my toast in the morning! Unfortunately on our way back home we passed a bad wreck in which we later discovered two guys were killed - I knew someone must have died as I saw the coroners vehicle as we passed. We finished the day off with a lovely meal out at an Italian restaurant in Madeira.

One year ago: American alligator