Just before we set out on our walk we bumped into Tessie and Dec. Tessie grew up in the house next door to my Dads and she used to look after myself and my brother and sisters after school when Mom was at work. Her and Dec are like part of our family and are invited to nearly all our family gatherings. We walked with them for while before heading off alone.
We called into an old graveyard and checked out all the old headstones, we walked down by the river, and tried to see any little fish. We crossed the bridge and followed the canal for a while. We walked around a new estate that had preserved some old ruins in its grounds. At the top of the village we stumbled upon an old rundown georgian townhouse. We managed to squeeze through the railings and spent ages exploring the ruins of the out buildings and the over grown back garden. We talked about all the things we would do to it if it was ours.
From there we headed towards the rath. Back in the day the rath was a big fort, but now its a huge mound of earth with a dip in the middle and some very large trees in a ring around it, in the middle of a big field. I'd been up to it a few times as a kid, but I wanted to see it again and wanted to show it to Conor. The rath is where my village gets its name from. To get to it you have to go into the grounds of an old church and climb over a wall.
The driveway to the church is a short sort of tree lined avenue, there was some bluebells in bloom and it was looking lovely. We got to the wall and stood on a bench to look into the field only to find it inhabited by 6 large bulls! With a trip to the rath off the cards we took a walk around the little graveyard that surrounded the church. Conor really wanted to see the rath so we took one final look before heading back down the church driveway.
Now usually when we go for a walk, Conor is always having to slow down to my pace, but on this occassion Conor was walking really slowly. As I started to get a little annoyed he sudenly stopped altogether.
He turned to face me and got down on one knee, right in the middle of the driveway. He suddenly had a ring box in his hand. I don't know where it came from, I didn't notice him take it out. I don't remember breathing for a few seconds when he said the words and I had to ask him to repeat it before saying.....yes! At this point I was starting to shake and get a little emotional (in a good way of course!) I sat myself down on a nearby stump, Conor joined me and we had the best hug ever, on that stump under all those trees.
As we enjoyed our hug, two guys started walking up the church driveway with a lawn mower going to do some maintenance. I don't know what they thought was going on, with two people sitting on the stump of a tree in the middle of the afternoon, one with tears streaming down their cheeks, but we figured we needed to move on.....
Still feeling a little light headed we figured an occasion like this called for Champagne! We picked ourselves up a bottle on the way back. As we walked I noticed Tessie and Dec again. I couldn't keep it in so they were the first people to hear our news. This made me really happy as Tessie is nearly like a second mum to me.
Back at my house, I got to tell my Mum, Dad, brother and sisters and Aunt and Uncle. None of whom we're surprised as we had been together five years and Conor had asked my Dad that morning of he could ask me to marry him. To which my Dad replied "That would be in order".
I agree Dad!
