14.02.10

Today's heart is.....

Is made with recycled buttons, 

hanging off a vase

filled with roses,

alstromeria

and

gypsophila

From Himself, taken by candle light.

This morning, a coffee was brought to me in bed. The curtains were thrown open and the sun poured in. 

When I came downstairs, on the table for me was a vase full of flowers and a card. 

I am smiling now as I write.

I gave Himself the lovebirds I made and he seemed genuinely pleased.  The boys, however, were indignant as they were not represented as little birds and I was firmly told to add two more - Himself and I just grinned.

It was in August 1995 that I met him.

I had run from a disastrous relationship in Africa and was immature, brittle and smart mouthed. I'd  managed to get a live-in job at a Field Studies Centre in Slapton, South Devon, where I scrubbed toilets, planted trees, waited at tables, made beds, built stiles and fences, milked cows and grew to love the countryside. 

The first person I met was Himself as he lugged all my worldly possessions out of the back of a pickup truck and nearly dislocated his shoulder. His first words were... " %!**#?  ^&(( - what do you have in your suitcase - the kitchen sink??!!"

It was the first time I'd heard a northern accent. He had such a deep voice. And something inside made me want to see him again. He was also at the Field Centre as one of the placement students. When we weren't working, the staff would go out in groups to thelocal  pub or to town, and occasionally a placement would join us. Sometimes Himself, sometimes one of the others.

After a while, only we would go exploring the moors and beaches, the villages and lanes. We would range far and wide discovering the world and each other. We became inseparable, and when at the end  year he had to go back to college and I had to go back to Africa, I followed my heart and followed him.

Years later he told me, that as he was driving down to the Field Centre, he had stopped at a motorway service station for a quick rest. As he was quietly dozing in the car with the radio on, there had been a tap on the window. He looked and saw a woman standing there, he rolled down the window and the woman  said "You are on your way to meet your future wife"

Himself said at the time he thought - **you're barmy** and just smiled at her, wound his window up and drove off (quickly).

It's strange how fate turns out. But I would do it all again.

My three, under a big sky.