It is a warmer, sunny day with scattered cloud today. We have plans for the small side garden, we share with our neighbour John this year. We took down the 22 year Ivy that surrounded the two brick walls at the back in the autumn and the Clematis struggling amongst it. There is a good healthy heather bed, a red Weigela bush and a tall yellow rose with a Beam tree remaining.

Sylvia, has a lot of established plants she can split and ideas for new ones she wants to plant there, so we looked at what the local garden centre had to offer. She settled for a White Ornamental Japanese Quince and we went down to the river at Poppleton to sit for a while and enjoy the scene and fresh air.

The river was full and the large, fat buds of the great old chestnut by the seats were just beginning to open. It looked very majestic with the Daffodils and celandines in attendance. We treated ourselves to a couple of fruit jellies and sat for a half hour. A swarm of lapwings circled over the other side of the river and people walked their dogs. A bouncing boxer and a King Charles Spaniel with its nose to the ground. We decided it would be the tiny road from off the A19 near Skelton they had found their way from. As soon as we have a settled spell we will make a start.

Sylvia recalled the days she enjoyed there as children with her sister, brother, parents, cousins, aunts and uncles. They travelled up river on the pleasure boats with picnics from York, got off and spent the day there. "We thought we had travelled miles," she said. "Every yard and step was full of interest."