I just realised (March 2024) that I had put these two photographs all ready to upload in June 2023 (!) but completely forgot about them - probably because they're of my 80th birthday party in June 2023.
One is of the very special cake, baked by a local lady who is very skilled at baking and somehow translated an image on her computer onto a sheet of icing on the cake! The photograph alleges to show my progress from birth to my 80th with some photographs surreptitiously acquired by my good friend Barbara who had arranged the whole thing, including getting 14 friends to turn up on the day.
The other photo is of me cutting the cake. This was on a warm day in June but I am wearing a knitted sweater and knitted scarf. The hand-knitted scarf was a birthday present from my sister in Australia and the sweater is one that my late wife began but was unable to finish before her death - the "Stronsay Stitchers", a group of ladies who meet every month for a Knit & Natter, took over the sweater (and didn't tell me) and completed it as a surprise Christmas present for me in 2014.
