Birthday thank yous!

Birthdays are always a bit fraught past 30ish, at least for me. Will anyone remember? Will I have to remind them and then feel miserable because I had to remind them and therefore they would have forgotten if I hadn’t? Where is my cake and ice-cream and party? Some years the day passes in a sort of blur of bad tempered disappointment that nobody – including myself – thinks my birthday is important any more.

However, I’m pleased to say that this year has been a good one. I have cards, and presents, and birthday wishes from many more people than I could ever have expected. I’ve also finished my first draft of Blessed Isle, so I feel a weight off my shoulders there. My children may have forgotten, but my friends on the internet did not *Hugs*

Thank you to abstractrx and eldritchhobbit for the lovely vgifts, to abstractrx, jessewave and wulfila for the e-cards, and to erastes and wulfila for the RL card and present. Hee! You are all stars!

On the present side, I got a small but very high class selection

Chief of which is a lady’s silver pocket watch (currently missing one hand and the winder key, but I’m sure that can be fixed) and a letter opener made out of the wood and the copper bottom of HMS Victory.

I can’t make head or tail out of the hallmarks on the watch, so I don’t yet know how old it is (Andrew found it in Oxfam), but it’s a beautiful thing and I can’t wait until we can get it going again so that I can start to wear and use it.

Edited to say the mystery hallmarks are revealed! I couldn’t find them on lists of British hallmarks because they are Swiss. The two creatures I thought were lions rampant are actually bears and indicate that the watch case is Swiss silver above .875 standard. These marks were used from 1882 to 1934. Cool! Naturally, I choose to believe that it’s a 19th Century watch, just by the skin of its teeth