Just like the bad penny . . .

I've turned up again.  It was so good to get away from everything for a few days.  Well, nearly everything.  I did spend some time out in the courtyard trimming the jasmine that climbs up one post of the pergola.  It doesn't grow quite as quickly as the wisteria, thank goodness, but it does need keeping in its place.  This year I thought to take the electric hedge trimmer with me and I did in an hour what, in other years, it has taken me the better part of a day to accomplish.  One of the few times when I have managed to plan ahead!

I was amazed to find on getting home last night that we had covered a little over 1120 miles during the week (that figure is not unusual) at an average fuel consumption of 52.4mpg.  That's a more frugal figure than I have ever managed in this car.

It meant an earlier than usual getting up time last Monday, the day we went, and the view from the bedroom was almost magical - or mystical - or something.

Back to Blighty

We have some beautiful country here in England, some of the most magnificent views being in the Lake District in north-west England.  This is one of the wettest parts of the country but I have been very lucky on all my visits.  There has been rain, sure - and snow as well - but more sun that I had a right to expect.  Like the day we drove into Great Langdale.  Just imagine waking up to this view every morning.

Old Sturbridge

When the Old Bat and I visited New England in the way back, we spent a very pleasant half-day wandering round the village of Old Sturbridge.  This is (or was then) a reconstruction of an old Massachusetts-style village with the characters dressed appropriately.  An excellent introduction to that period in history.

When evening falls

The evening shadows were beginning to fall when I took this picture from the bedroom about four weeks ago.  I've only just discovered it on the camera!

The Cloth Hall

During the First World War, the Belgian town of Ypres was almost completely destroyed, including the medieval Cloth Hall.  The centre of the town was rebuilt after the war to the same design, as near as possible, using old paintings and photographs.  This is the rebuilt Cloth Hall in all its 20th century medieval magnificence - although my photograph is not of the highest quality.

That "wow" moment

They say (whoever "they" might be) that it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.  Certainly, there have been times - more than I like to remember - when I have arrived only to ask myself (like Peggy Lee), "Is that all there is to it?"  I regret to say that those "wow" moments have been few and far between.  Far too few.  There are, however, several that I am able to remember.  I'm reasonably sure that I have mentioned at least one of them before, but maybe I can be excused for telling about it one more time.

The Old Bat and I had driven from Brighton to Italy to spend a brief, all too brief, holiday in Tuscany.  We visited most of the usual tourist haunts - Florence, Siena and so on - and, of course, Pisa.  I'm not entirely sure just what I expected of Pisa.  The size of the city surprised me; I had expected a much smaller place.  I drove around, following what I thought were the appropriate tourist signs for the city centre and car parks.  After what seemed like a three day camel ride, I managed to find a parking spot.  We walked out of the car park, crossed a busy road and then strolled perhaps a hundred yards along a side street before coming out into a large piazza.

That was my "wow" moment.

There in front of me were the baptistry, the cathedral and the leaning tower, all gleaming white in the morning sun.  And scarcely a tourist to be seen!

While I'm away

I'm pretty sure that was part of a line from a song.  I seem to remember that it went something like, "While I'm away, oh please remember me.  Soon I'll be sailing far across the sea."  Not that it is of any importance.  But I'm off to stock up on the usual goodies available so much more cheaply across the Channel.  I thought to leave you with one or two piccies in my absence - not many words except for brief descriptions.

Looking back over my "work" so far this year, this picture is well in the running for favourite of the year.  I had taken numerous photos of the rape flowers in the fields over in France while driving around (no, not actually while driving.  I did stop the car to take them.) but one day I took a stroll along a lane going out of the village and came across a fruit tree (cherry?  plum?) at the side of a field.  The whole scene, with the rape flowers, the trees just coming into leaf, the blue of the sky and the white clouds as well as the white blossom, just looked so fresh that I couldn't resist.