Celebrating Irene's Birthday

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Celebrating Around Irene's Tree

Today would have been Irene's birthday and is also the anniversary of the planting of Irene's hawthorn tree on this day last year.

Floss and Monk had orginally planned a champagne toast around the tree in the evening before going off to the local Thai restaurant. Richmond Park is normally open 24 hours for pedestrians even during the dark winter nights.

Then Monk heard that Irene's brother Arthur and his wife Pat were, in any case, planning to drop by the tree during the day with Irene's nieces Joanna and Lucy together with Jason and Chilli and their beautiful girls Bella and Charlotte.

From that original plan, things grew. On Saturday afternoon, 16 of us met by the tree, drank champagne and laughed and chatted for almost an hour. Monk's mum, brother, Sue, Moira, Bozena, Brian, Finchie and Frank all joined in - not to mention Nellie. Bella played games in the grass with Lucy and Chilli and pretended?? to be frightened by Monk. Charlotte just smiled all the time.

We left flowers by the tree which will be eaten by the deer before the weekend is out. It was a beautifully sunny afternoon and when it started to get a bit chilly, we all went off to the Pottery for a late lunch.

It was the perfect way to celebrate Irene's birthday and she would have approved - champagne, laughter and beautiful memories. Monk is so pleased that the tree is a place where we can all feel close to Irene in a beautiful, living and growing environment surrounded by nature. After a worrying start, when the young tree was damaged by frost last June, it perked up during the summer and we're hoping that it will be strong this year with lots of white blossom.

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