to have and to hold

The sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky on the morning of Sunday 7th March, heralding the tentative Spring day.

Having spent the morning at church, John & I set off on a mystery adventure.

As far as I was aware, we were going to Blaise Castle, or possibly Ashton Court, two of our favourite places in Bristol. I didn't know which & John wouldn't tell me, because it was a 'mystery', despite the fact that he asked me where I would like to go.

En route, John said, 'I have something for you' and pulled a piece of paper out of his coat pocket.
It was a typed message. John doesn't have a printer so I was curious as to when & where he'd printed off this little riddle.

In my slight hunger-coma state, I ate a couple of pieces of peppered salami from our picnic selection to fill the hole in my belly & help me work out the riddle.

Along with the riddle, John handed me a satellite image of our destination : Blaise Castle.

We arrived at the Blaise Estate, along with half of Bristol's population, also taking advantage of the Early Springtime Sunshine. Having eaten our picnic & established that actually, it probably wasn't quite picnic weather just yet, John handed me an essential tool for our afternoon adventure, my 'digging spoon' {aka a dessertspoon}.

After a wonderful walk & scramble up some muddy banks, all the while cliutching my digging spoon and following the lead of the riddles & John, we found our way to a slightly secluded spot, where I was required to dig a hole 20cm deep. After 20 minutes of digging, I had reached the conclusion that there wasn't anything to be found, other than a lot of rocks and worms, who I apologised to for uprooting, and thought maybe we might plant something. Our own little addition to the Blaise Castle estate.

I discovered I had reached the end of my wonderings as John provided the conclusion. As he took my hands, knelt down on one knee and asked me to stand, I held my breath as I took note of the fact, 'he's down on one knee! he's down on one knee! I wonder if anyone else has spotted this!'

As John uttered his next sentence with a look of nervousness on his face that rarely appears, I stood with muddy hands & knees, looking at the man who is to become my husband.

The reward for my digging was marriage & I cannot think of a better reward than that.

Thank you John for asking me to be your wife.