Gosford House

 Ah, spring. As you can see, it's been shining directly on the garden.

And here's another ray of sunshine - in this case, clutching her daddy's legs. This is her third forehead bump. We're hoping that she starts being more careful soon.

At the weekend we went out with the walking group, this time to Gosford and Aberlady. Here's the mausoleum that the seventh Earl of Wemyss (1723-1808) built as a family burial vault some time around 1796 in the grounds of his grand house, Gosford. The top of it is a perfect pyramid, for reasons connected with Freemasonry. It cost £1073, which was a fair bit in those days. Indeed, when I started work in 1973, my first year's salary was only £1728. I think the Earl was somewhat wealthier than I . For some reason, though there's room for 64 coffins, the Earl's is the only one currently in there.

There are various artificial lakes with swans paddling decoratively around.

Here's the house, designed by Robert Adam. I wonder what on earth it cost- probably more than I've earned in my life. All the same, the eighth Earl didn't like the wings as designed by Adam and had them knocked down. The current wings date from 1890.

This is the side; also quite fancy.

We walked on to Aberlady and along by the sea, passing the place where Mr L and I got engaged in 1972. Aaaahh. This precipitated some discussion about the circumstances in which others among us had plighted their troths. Gill remembered that George took her out for a posh meal and she was sure that he was going to ask her to marry her; but he didn't. "When he eventually did," she said, "it was a bit of an anticlimax." She thought about this. "Now I come to think about it," she added, "I can't quite think when it happened." Still, it's lasted forty-something years so I think she's got over the disappointment.

Then back to the Gosford farm shop and cafe to have a cup of tea after our seven-mile walk.