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From South East To South West And A Look At Traffic Lights
Friday May 7th and we now head back to Cornwall, this time for a full fortnight of walking the coastal paths and exploring different parts of this terrific peninsula. The slow arrival of Spring mentioned in our previous post continues to confound. On the long drive down here it is obvious that leaf growth is delayed by the continuing lower than average temperatures; frost prevails, cold winds continue and this week the media showed pictures of heavy snowfalls in Scotland. In fact, a ski resort which has been closed all winter due to COVID has now reopened with good snow – the first time the resort has ever been open…
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Reunion In Constable Country
Dedham Vale is one of those quintessentially English locations full of charm and full of history; the countryside is gentle yet beautiful, the villages within the Vale the stuff of picture postcard perfection. You could film a period costume drama here without changing anything except the traffic. Straddling the boundary between the counties of Essex and Suffolk, this is where the world famous artist John Constable was born, lived most of his life, and was of course the subject of a large number of his most famous works. As you stroll around these parts it’s easy to see why Constable was so enamoured, it’s a lovely area to this day.…
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Nesting Season Is Here Again
Along the stretch of coast between our home in Herne Bay and Birchington to the east, lies a sand/mud cliff rising almost vertically at the back of the beach. At this time of year, as reliable as clockwork, something happens here which makes this walk a little bit special. The colony of sand martins arrive here at the completion of their intercontinental migration, returning to their customary nesting holes in the sandy cliff. Nesting season from start to finish sees much activity, and from the nesting function itself through to so the frenzy of feeding feed the hatchlings. That time is here, and Michaela caught some of the action on…
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Pandemic Perspective
It’s hard to get through a day at the minute without hearing somebody somewhere say “it is what it is” in one situation or another. Whilst we don’t particularly like hackneyed phrases such as that one, we concur with the philosophy that if you can’t change something then there’s no point dwelling on it. We would hope that one thing which comes over on our blog is that we are both of a positive disposition; neither of us, thankfully, are prone to depression or similar, and neither of us are even what you would call worriers. So for the most part we have managed to stay upbeat over the 17…
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Just one person from around the world
We have previously shared our experience in Sri Lanka with you but we are now reposting this story as our contribution to Just one person from around the world by Cadyluck Leedy The story of Mangala As we ventured out on our first walk around the village, Mangala was brought forward as the tuk-tuk owner with the best English of the drivers gathered together under the tree, and for our remaining days in Sigiriya he ferried us around, giving us a terrific insight into Sri Lanka and its people which was to develop into a show of Sri Lankan hospitality and friendship and give us plenty of memories which will stay…
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Joe Biden & David Bowie: A Thought For Friday
In recent days we have seen Joe Biden announce multi trillion dollar spending plans based largely around social welfare and other public spending, as the reverberation of the end of the Trump era continues. Just over fifty years ago,at the start of the 70s, David Bowie released the album “The Man Who Sold The World”, containing the track “Saviour Machine”, which opens with these lyrics…. “President Joe once had a dream The world held his hand, gave their pledge, So he sold them his scheme for a saviour machine. They called it The Prayer, its answer was Law Its logic stopped war, gave them food Oh how they adored till…
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Travel Stories: From The Boudoir To The Bosphorus
“Full”, she said sternly from behind her perspex screen. It was one simple word but its implications were huge and I struggled to take it in. “Full”, she repeated, just a little more sternly than the first time. “No, no”, I pleaded, “we must get to Istanbul tonight. We have to…”.. but the stern woman was just shaking her head and looking past me. We hadn’t considered for a single moment that there wouldn’t be room on the boat – after all, how can a large passenger boat crossing the Sea Of Marmara from Bandirma to Istanbul even get close to full capacity? How can there even be such a…
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Travel Stories: The Nungwi Sunset
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Yet at the time it seemed entirely logical that if we were heading out on to the Indian Ocean to see the renowned magnificent Nungwi sunset, then it would be time for dinner by the time we came back to shore. So it made perfect sense to change out of beachwear and into something more appropriate before we made our way to the boat – got to be the correct decision, right? Wrong. “We’re here for the sunset cruise”, I called to the pre-occupied boat guys, trying to elicit some kind of response. A couple of them looked up so we gravitated towards them. “Where…
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Home From Cornwall….For Now
Ten days in Cornwall in April and we didn’t see a drop of rain, now that’s got to be a blessing. COVID restrictions and protocols made it a different kind of visit, with no indoor catering coupled with cold evenings and limited table space making seeking our main meal a bit of a daily challenge but with a bit of flexibility and resourcefulness we avoided going hungry. Our new found virtue of patience, no doubt brought on by the slower pace of retirement, came in handy at times. And so we have completed the first of three UK trips which we have in the diary to fill in some of…
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The Sleepy Shores Of St Mawes
Approaching St Mawes is in one respect just a little bit like approaching a Greek island, in that the very best view you will get all day is the view you get from the ferry as it turns towards the harbour. Of course it is yet another quaint and picturesque location and is great to explore, but there’s no denying that the first view is the best view. The little ferry, which can be caught from either of two quays in Falmouth, is itself a picture of quaint tradition and bobs rather pleasingly over the waves as it crosses between the two headlands. Within Falmouth harbour sits a characteristically grey…
