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Cape Cornwall
Monday March 14th, and suddenly it’s Spring. As we descend the stony path alongside the cascading brook, warm sunshine kisses our faces and the air hangs heavy with the pungent scent of wild garlic. The blooms of gorse, celandine and wild daffodils paint yellow splashes amongst the green foliage as flocks of goldfinches scatter across the clifftop, maybe just arriving for the summer. Rabbits scurry beneath hedgerows and, across the field, a pheasant squawks and races away like a sprinter with his hands in his pockets. Majestic cliffs tower over the deep blue Atlantic, birds carry twigs towards nesting sites, the colours are impossibly sumptuous and if it is remotely…
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Cornwall Revisited
Currently enjoying another spell in Cornwall, we are at the same time counting the days to our next overseas adventure, now only just over a week away. Here and now, on the cusp of the seasons, the Cornish Winter clings on while Spring struggles to make its entry. When we first made the arrangements for Michaela’s Mum to join us in Padstow for a few days, we really wanted to be able to show Norma all of the different reasons we love this place, show this place in all its guises, all of its different moods. In true Cornwall style, the first thing to play ball is the weather, and…
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Famous Faces, Favourite Places
Darkness becomes morning light and the incessant rain of the last five days turns to dry roads as we head south west; the rising sun illuminates a cloudless sky across which the blue starts to deepen as we near the end of the 320 mile journey and approach Cornwall, our second home in more ways than the obvious. Without fail, arriving in Cornwall makes both of us, me in particular, feel like we’re home: today’s blue skies and early Spring sunshine just make those feelings even stronger than normal. But this time, as we leave the dark and the damp behind, our conversation is as much about yesterday as it…
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Rock History & Me #4: Dunstable California
Just outside the nondescript Bedfordshire town of Dunstable lies a range of chalk hills known as the Dunstable Downs, home to some attractive countryside and the famous Whipsnade Zoo. In an unlikely setting just off the main road out across the Downs was the California Ballroom, a live music venue which in its day sat comfortably on every tour itinerary below the A-list. The California in the mid 1970s was the type of venue which would probably not get a licence these days, let alone be on a major gig circuit, without a major rethink. My first time was late ‘74/early ‘75, and my first impression on walking into that…
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Hungry for more……
It’s nearly three weeks now since we returned from our Costa Rica and California trip, three weeks in which we’ve visited family, spent time with Michaela’s Mum, hugged granddaughters and taken in a couple of football matches. In other words, three weeks in which we’ve covered most of our reasons to be in England and so now we’ve started to once again get itchy about travel. It goes without saying, now anyway, that the two years since we retired to travel the world haven’t quite gone according to plan, but we think we can look back and say we’ve been pretty resourceful and, in fact, the travels we have managed…
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Karolina’s Coincidence
When we first met Karolina, she was upside down. Looking out across the spectacular desert scenery of Jordan as the sunset swathed the rock formations in ochre shades, but upside down nonetheless. But then yoga people do seem to spend large parts of their day in positions which are fairly alien to the rest of us. Karolina isn’t just a lover of yoga, she is an exponent of acroyoga, a somewhat more exotic and expansive yoga form – and, what’s more, she’s a big fan of yoga-ing in exotic locations around the world and posting beautiful photographs on her Instagram site @acro_yoga_engineer After a brief and slightly disconcerting chat with…
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Costa Rica Pura Vida
Rather like “hakuna matata” in certain African countries, “pura vida” can be heard, and seen, everywhere in Costa Rica, and really does have as many uses as the picture above suggests. It’s the motto of the national brewing company Imperial, it even appears on the national football team’s shirts. Above all, it conveys the contentment and happiness of the Costa Rican people. Costa Rica is a rather enlightened nation, one which receives envious glances from larger nations and greater powers across the globe, in terms of its environmentally friendly policies and its relationship with the natural world. It isn’t hidden and is most certainly not a role played by posturing…
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England And A Not So Warm Welcome
Eighteen hours after leaving Lindsay’s house in California we are walking the few yards from the car to our front door, jogging with backpacks on for those few paces to get out of the cold as quickly as possible. After seven weeks in the sun a February English evening doesn’t feel great. “Phil?”, calls Michaela from upstairs, “the screen’s blank”. “What screen?”. “The heating system”. The house is utterly perishing cold. It’s becoming plain that the heating – and hot water – must have failed weeks ago; carpets don’t get to feel like sheets of ice in a few days. Frantic fuse changing brings no joy, we’re going to have…
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Exploring Los Angeles
In the crisp clear mountain air, the peaks and ridges of the surrounding ranges seem almost impossibly well defined against the unchanging backdrop of the cloudless blue sky, now and again one more prominent peak glistens with white snow. The setting is of one of rural remoteness, yet the giant sprawl of Los Angeles starts just a few miles away; it’s only forty minutes drive to downtown LA. This is the small all-American community of Acton, founded by gold miners in the 1880s and a world away from the burgeoning metropolis we passed through en route here from the airport. It’s crisp and cold in the bright sunlight but the…
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Hallelujahs In Alajuela
Including a break for lunch it takes about five hours to drive across country from the coast to Alajuela – it’s good advice when travelling Costa Rica’s roads to allow plenty of extra time, these roads are slow and there are regular delays. Alajuela, the country’s second city yet within easy reach of the capital, is our last port of call here, mostly for convenience as we are now close to both the airport and the COVID testing facility which is needed for entry in to the USA. Along with a fair pile of paperwork. A wander around Alajuela city centre takes in the cathedral, the adjoining green square and…
