Well, I was 30 this year. Life begins....
We had a BBQ at the house to celebrate on the Saturday after the big day, which was also the christening of our new garden (which had until a few weeks earlier been nothing but mud and weeds. It all went very well, with a great turn-out and no reported cases of food poisening.
The following weekend, Ruth took me away for a weekend break as a birthday present, we stayed at the most gorgeous guest house ever in Berwick on Tweed.
Thank you very much to everyone who came along to the party, and for all the gifts. Thanks also to Ruth for a wonderful weekend away!
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The scene from the living room window...
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Reprobates loitering with beer. They can't be loitering with intent - we have no tent!
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Rare moment - the rest of the evening I was standing in front of the BBQ, from which smoke and flames issued forth!
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I love this photo of Ruth and I
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Mmmmmm. Chocolate cake.
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Cake with fire.
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Cutting the cake for consumption.
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Spectators keeping a safe distance. Ruth with fire and me with a knife - enough to frighten anyone.
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Artistic sculpture involving a Tunnocks tea-cake and some bread-sticks.
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Satisfied - a well earned sit down and slice of cake, just what was needed!
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Gill, looking glam.
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Neil gesticulates wildly, causing Doug to duck while Keith looks on amazed.
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That's right Neil, control yourself.
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Caroline, before the "optrex fiasco", as it will henceforth be known.
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Adrian during a quiet moment.
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The greatest work of literature ever to be written by committee causes varied reactions...
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Steve stoops to say hello to Misty.
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This is the B&B in Berwick the following weekend. We had a plasma TV with DVD player and satellite TV in our room.
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We were the first people to stay in this room - it has just newly been refurbished and opened to guests.
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Ruth at Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island...
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...where we watched displayes of Viking crafts and combat.
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In the afternoon we went for a cruise around the Farne Islands to see the seabirds...
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...and the grey seal colony.
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There were seals all around the boat a lot of the time.
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I don't think I have ever seen this many puffins before - I love their brightly coloured beaks.
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Much more impressive than the gulls!
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The lighthouse - famous for the Grace Darling story.
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Seal in the water.
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Bamburgh castle from the sea.
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Gull on the wing.
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Cormorant skimming the surface.
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Cormorant drying off on a rock.
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The Farne Islands viewed from Bamburgh Castle looking to the South...
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...and Holy Island to the North
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We went back to the Holy Island road afterwards, just to see what it looked like at high tide.
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The next day, we went to Alnwick Castle and Gardens. I liked the Poison Garden, where every plant is poisonous.
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Some less harmful flowers...
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...I got a bit carried away photographing flowers...
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...last ones, I promise!
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No - I didn't lie. This is a fountain, not a flower.
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Tame bird in the gardens, just before a noisy kid chased it off.
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Afternoon tea.
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