Precious Time

Sometimes we forget how precious people and time we spend with them is.  It is to late when they are gone to spend that time, and I have really got to value time spent together with friends and family.

Jen is off work for a while, she is still waiting for a call from the Hospital for surgery on the skull fracture, which is causing brain fluid to leak through her nostrils.   Being NHS, it will not be done in the next day or so.   But taking the chance to be together is really good, we have the time to do things together which we could not do while I was working and even after retirement, found difficult as she still works.

We went to Hever Castle yesterday, an attraction about 25 miles from where we live.  It is commercialised to an extent, and everything is cordoned off, and it is all look, but don't touch.  I found it quite frustrating - as it describes itself as interactive, but we noticed that those who borrowed the mobile handheld tour guides quickly ran out of battery power, half way around.  No photography or video is permitted - I fail to understand why, perhaps as an encouragement to buy an expensive guide book!

The grounds however are beautiful and well worth a visit on their own account.  Peaceful to walk through meadows, wooded areas and a maze, without the crowds you might get in peak season.

The delight for us however was on leaving the Castle, going to view St Peters Church at Hever, it is ancient, patently Church of England, and with many relics and associations with the Bullen (Bolyin in Anne) family and latterly the Astor Family.   We found it peaceful and the stained glass window in the Chancel with the sun shining through it was stunning.  Jen who is not overawed by churches found it quite beautiful, and a reminder of her childhood and CofE upbringing in Charlton and Blackheath in SE London. 

Due to Jen's illness, we have not been able to really go out somewhere together for several months and I found the time together with lots of photographs as a commemoration, means that these precious times are preserved for memory and posterity (and our grand children).