Sakura in Northumberland

I treated Linda to an early birthday present with a visit to Alnwick Gardens to see the cherry blossom. It goes against the grain to be paying the Duchess for the privilege of visiting her garden, funded as a charity by the lottery and the EU (the Duke campaigned for Brexit) which after 25 years will revert to their ownership. But the temptation of seeing the blossom was too great.

It was lovely in the sunshine but even with a timed ticket, very busy. Unfortunately my foot was so sore I was only able to hobble round but there were plenty of seats so we had our flask of coffee and cakes and chatted amid the whole gorgeousness of it. The slight breeze blew petals down around us.

We have just had a FaceTime with London friends and there is very sad news about a mutual friend there who only 3 years ago had a stomach cancer op. Now it seems likely she has a totally unrelated bone cancer.