65 and still alive

............well that's what the badge said in his birthday parcel. All that effort I made to find it and he forgot to wear it! He liked the shirt..... well, that was a forgone conclusion. It'll be rotated with the other hundred or so hanging in his wardrobe. The trousers (or pants to you across the 'pond') are a smidgen too tight. OK..... so..... do we exchange them for a larger pair or do we (yes, both of us) do a weight watching exercise? I feel the later may be the most sensible suggestion. The slippers (boring but practical) what can I say, they were added to tease! He thought they were OK but I wonder if he thought the box it was all packed in contained the laptop that he really wanted! Oh what a disappointment!

It was a lovely day, bright and sunny. Best to take advantage of it before we get rained on again. It 's Friday and so it's Market Day in Stamford so that's where we headed for.

Stamford became a small Danish settlement in about AD800 when the Danes raided Britain. It's a low spot on the river Welland where people were able to ford it. It's also the only place in England where four Counties meet. We both like the historical buildings, the atmosphere, the mix of little interesting shops that outnumber the usual boring high street sameness. We love its quaint alleyway's and snickets, and it coffee bars and tea shops. Stamford is also Dave's birthplace so a visit on his 65th birthday seemed appropriate.

When we were kids both of our families use to come to these Meadows on a Sunday afternoon for picnics and if the weather was nice we would be allowed to swim in the river. The river passed through the town and is edged by these water meadows. Unfortunatly the river is not a safe place to swim in now days. Such a shame, the simple fun we had then is now replaced by super safe, hygienically sterile, expensive, over supervised play places for kids.

Many of the streets and buildings in Stamford have been used in films This one featured in 'Middlemarch'

The houses and shops are built from the locally quarried sandstone and are a beautiful mellow ochre.

This Norman arch survives in a nook of the road very near the Old 'Rare Book' shop.


The market stretches along one of the streets closed to traffic every Friday its an eclectic mix of stalls Much more interesting than the Peterborough market in it's purpose built enclosure. There was a farmers Market this week. It sells it's wares along the middle pedestrianised street of the town.
While we were walking along the third street through Stamford , the only street with traffic flowing through it today, we were stopped in our tracks by a loud continuous quacking and out from a snicket on the other side of the road burst a mother duck with a brood of tiny duckings. The duckings were stumbling and rolling after her. She shepherded her brood across the road made a missing all the traffic and straight into the open doorway of a small coffee shop. Quickly realising her mistake and with more flapping of wings and insistent quacking they all tumbled out except one lonesome duckling. Mum and her brood minus one rapidly waddled, tumbled and rolled down another narrow snicket down towards the river. The abandoned duckling was scooped up by a good Samaritan shopper who followed mother duck down the snicket. Everyone on the street had stopped to watch the brief frantic flight of the family. Last seen the little duck family now united with daddy duck were bobbing about on the river.

After a reviving cup of tea and a slice of cake in a book shop tea shop we made our way across the meadows back to the car.