I asked if I could take it home for my garden but she just smiled sweetly

Forty years ago today at about now Mike and I saw each other at our school valentines disco, we danced to Spirit in the sky by Norman Greenbaum, walked home together and the rest is history. Over breakfast this morning I did some silly mental maths and reckoned that I have heard Mikes voice as long as I had heard my Dad's in my life, and that is really very silly mental agility but just puts life into perspective. We got the camper out and packed boots, picnic and Dog and set off for another day off....we are making a bit of a habit of this, isn't that great. We trundled , (because Lily van can only do that) down on the yellow roads to Villedieu les Poeles to visit the bell foundry. We waited very patiently for the English guide to turn up who was a slip of the girl with good enough but shaky English so we had a eventful tour in Franglais. There were bells to ring, handle and appreciate, the whole process of casting in all it's detail was explained and demonstrated, this foundry is still designing and casting bells at a rate of 200 a year and there were three moulds still steaming from thier casting this morning . The physical warmth of hundreds of years of production just oozzed out from this very "non" health and safety environment, and that made it all the more fascinating to watch and enjoy. We ditched the other English people on our tour because they were obnoxious... "we live in France and have brought our visitors out for a treat" types...then our very kind guide took us both to look at a few more things for our interest. It costs 30 euros a kilo to design cast and finish a bell, She took us to see a 4 foot high bell that weighed 1250 kilos costing the Chinese government 37.500 Euros and they have not bothered to come and pick it up . I asked if I could take it home for my garden but she just smiled sweetly