Notching it Up

Today I've added another notch to my tree of life, and rather a deep one it is this year.

There are few consolations to be had on achieving this number of birthdays save knowing that I have now officially outlived the ages of my parents and that I have finally winkled out my wee brother and sister-in-law from deepest darkest Wiltshire to drive north to share the day with His Lordship and me.

I must also say that the pure number itself appeals to my nerdy and geeky side with its satisfying factorisation possibilities despite its life limiting connotations.

His Lordship has come up trumps as usual with card, poem and this cake, even though the day started off badly at 5:30am with the house entry alarm going off and neither of us remembering the code to stop it.
We managed enough to silence it in the meantime, but if I believed in the supernatural, I might have thought it was my dear departed mother's way of wishing me a happy birthday even though she was a bit early according to my birth certificate. Perhaps the clocks going back a fortnight ago put things askew for her.