STILL WATERS - STILL RUNNING DEEP

Yesterday turned out to be one of those good days. A three hour drive to Southampton, meeting up with good friends, enjoying an excellent performance by Saints FC (more on that story later)....and then on to keep a very special evening appointment.

You see, yesterday was my mother`s birthday. Had she lived, she would have been 95. As it is, she passed away five years ago and her ashes reside in a special place where we used to live.

So, after the football, I drove the few miles down the western shore of Southampton Water, through the waterside villages, to Hythe, where we lived all those years ago and where my mother had her happiest times. At the bottom of what used to be our back garden, there is still a large oak tree which has survived all kinds of changes and `development` around it across half a century. And, in recognition of those happy family days, my mother`s ashes are, quite unofficially and probably illegally, scatterred around the base of that sturdy oak.

So I bought some flowers, had a chat with her and spent some time taking in the peace and stillness of the view across to Netley as the timeless tides of Southampton Water kissed that friendly shore on a beautiful, late summer evening.

And then the long, contemplative drive home after a very special day indeed.