I can't tell you how sad I was to leave the Isle of Man yesterday. Despite the trials of the weather, the place had really taken up residence in my heart again. Its haunting beauty ambushed me every day, and something -- an indefinable package of ancestry, heritage, nature, memory, and uniqueness -- resonated with me as perhaps never before.

The journey was relatively uneventful. We rose early, packed, cleaned, and headed for the ferry.

We stayed resolutely masked in the lounge (as no-one else was), and ate our mid-journey snack on the (very breezy) open deck.

We docked promptly, and were very soon heading for Derbyshire.

There was just one snafu... As we stopped at a service station to tick off all the usual requirements, Nigel's phone began to bing with SMS messages that someone was spending Korean won on his debit card... So we wasted a good 40 minutes (and a sizeable amount of ringgit) trying to phone the bank's hotline (although this is allegedly up and running 24/7, our every attempt ended -- after a lengthy series of bank informatics -- in disconnection). We did eventually get through to them today, and the card is now cancelled -- which is super-annoying, as only a couple of weeks ago, the credit card was torpedoed by some other fraudulent spender. Which all goes to show that you need LOTS of bits of plastic with you at all times, as you just never know when one or more will be taken out of action.

Anyway, back to yesterday, when we eventually arrived at West Hallam, and the very nice little cottage that we're renting for a few weeks.



We've not had much opportunity to explore yet (so many jobs had stacked themselves up for today), but the village has an interesting history, involving religious persecution, educational benefactors, canal projects, the Great Northern Railway (of Bennerley Viaduct fame), coal-mining, pottery, and dramatic demographic expansion. I look forward to finding out more.










As you can see from the photo at the top, West Hallam offers good views onto rolling countryside. There are footpaths everywhere; there's tons of industrial heritage to explore; and we have family nearby. So we'll do very well here for a little while.

And today was the vernal equinox... So from now on there'll be more light than dark. Always a good thing. We celebrated with the bottle of Prosecco our hosts kindly gifted us, and an oven-baked omelette: auspiciously round and yellow, and richly packed with eggs, cream, cheese, and bacon. Here's to the next quarter...