Home again.

Home again...................from the hills.

I drove the miles yesterday.......

South.

Thinking of you.

And thinking of the dad I'd left behind.

One aged 91

And the other forever 30.

Memories of the two of you together surface now

A proud granddad relating to us how he sported a red rose the day you were born,

Pushing you out in your pram, when he and mum came to visit

Giving you a Burnley FC bobcap, and having his photo taken with you, in the kitchen of our second flat, near Portsmouth.

Teaching you to sing,

"You push the damper in,

And you pull the damper out,

And the smoke goes up the chimney just the same.......

Star of the evening,

Sail across the cook-house doo-oo-or!

Star of the evening,

And the smoke goes up the chimney as before!"

All this to vigorous hand and arm actions!

He sang it to me when I was small. And so I sang it to you.

On the hillside in the picture, near the tower, I have a photo of the two of you one Easter.

Good Friday was always a day when people traditionally climbed up there.

You were in your late teens, and smiled at the camera, jacket slung over one shoulder.

Posing for the shot!!

And I drove on..........

I had driven over 300 miles in 4 days, as I also travelled over the Pennines to see my sister.

As I turned on to our drive, Tiger was sitting in the upstairs bedroom window, surveying the scene.

As it was an almost springlike afternoon, he was released from his captivity into his favourite haunts outside.

I closed the door once more, to silence, except for the ticking of dad's chiming clock..............

Home again, and yet not home,

I'll never be competely home,

There's a space, a void,

But you had made the journey with me..........all those miles, there and back.

Time to enter my life here once more...................and as usual it started with a cup of tea.