The devil is in the detail

My dad was born 70 years ago to the day, narrowly missing out on having the enviable birthdate of 4/4/44.

I made him a two tier birthday cake of chocolate sponge and fruit cake and modelled him out walking. He goes on a long walk with his fellow gadgies every Friday (gadgie is a north east word for old fella) and writes a very informative blog on each route. If you're looking for a well-mapped walk in the north of England with interesting detail on flora & fauna, archaeological sites, place name derivations, where to get a good bacon butty, a terrible pun and invariably a photo of a carpark, I urge you to visit it. Don't expect to find short, easy walks though - the gadgies are fit as lops.

But look at the detail! This gadgie might colour co-ordinate with the cake, but not in any sartorial sense. You can almost hear my mum saying "Michael! Grey jumper? Green trousers? Brown boots? These don't match". I swear he does it to annoy her. Also I know he is colour blind

Next up - a stile in the middle of a dry stone wall. My dad often photographs unusual stiles and promises to publish a pamphlet entitled "Stiles and Gates of Northumberland and Cumbria". Retirement, eh? I can't wait.

The sheep - there is an ongoing joke about sheep and his fellow gadgie Harry. I don't want to know. The pork pie is the symbol of the Gadgies with the Latin motto "Rarely overtaken, always drunk". The Friday walks are one of the few occasions my poor father gets to eat meat, having lived nearly all his adult life with killjoy vegetarians.

The rabbit. My dad has no interest in rabbits, I just put one on the cake because it's nearly Easter and I think they're cute. One of our habits used to be counting all the rabbits outside the library on the walk into town (record was 13). However they all mysteriously disappeared one night and Newcastle City Council have not responded to my enquiries.

I hope he enjoys his cake - just a few minutes left of 5 April to wish my dad a very happy birthday! xxx