Peaceful reflections...

A day of contrasts...

A beautiful road journey that took us the full length of the Cotswolds, through honey stone towns and villages, over rolling hills and through lush green countryside, and all under a blue sky studded with puffy white clouds....

The purpose of the journey was to attend my Uncle's funeral in Rugby, so a very sad day. But entering the crematorium, the sun was shining and a skylark was singing high above us. It was a lovely service, with many happy memories and stories of my Uncle's life. He was a wonderful man, with a wicked sense of humour. At a young age, he was spotted by a football scout, and was signed up to play for West Bromwich Albion, but at the age of just 24, he was struck with Polio and was left paralysed from the waist down. However, this didn't stop my Uncle from leading a full and varied life, and from getting himself into all sorts of hilarious scrapes! After the service, the family got together and had a lovely time sharing all these stories and reminiscing, with much laughter and many smiles....

This is the river Avon (as in Stratford-Upon-Avon) that flows by right at the bottom of my Aunty and Uncle's garden. My Uncle used to spend many a happy hour, sat in his garden by the river bank, with his pipe and pint of beer, watching the cricket matches which were played on the other side of the river.

I'll leave you with my Uncle Michael's favourite song, if you would care to listen, Engelbert Humperdinck's Last Waltz....