30-Apr-2023
April has revolved around family and friends.
It has been a big, warm hug of a month. Familiar, undemanding, mostly unsurprising. Its sartorial equivalent would be a favourite dressing-gown and a comfy pair of slippers. Its culinary equivalent would be a nice big cup of hot chocolate.
Exactly what you need on a regular basis.
We started off in Somerset, but spent most of the April days in and around Nottinghamshire (start here, and work your way forward, via -- to select just a few -- the cheesemaking village of Colston Bassett; the Great British seaside at Skegness; the burning question of British Isles food; and PT's take on the coronation -- suffice it to say I won't be joining a "chorus of millions" to swear allegiance to the king and his heirs, because I already had to swear allegiance to the queen in order to become a citizen of New Zealand, and once is more than enough...).
Purple on the way to Newark, in Newark, and on trips from Newark...
We are now on the Isle of Man, a place that holds a unique and precious place in my heart (I talked about it last year, on my longest trip back for ages).
As everyone knows, the Isle of Man was formed when an Irish giant picked up a big clod of earth to throw at a Scottish giant, and missed. The clod became the Isle of Man, in the middle of the Irish Sea. The hole it came from is now known as Lough Neagh, in Northern Ireland. Illustrating this well-known historical fact is one in a series of very jolly shelters on Ramsey prom
This time, we're here only for 2.5 weeks, and it already feels as though that's WAY too little, and the time is going WAY too fast...
We're staying at Close Taggart, near Ballaugh, and we're absolutely loving it.
Purple at Close Taggart
We're loving that we're in the middle of nowhere; loving that we can go for beautiful walks right from our doorstep; loving that we can see wallabies -- yes, WALLABIES! -- roaming the countryside up here; loving that there's so much history to explore without going very far afield (the Isle of Man has been inhabited for nearly 10,000 years, so there are lots of remnants...); loving that whatever the weather is doing -- and it does LOTS, and totally believes in variety -- it's always beautiful:
We took these photos on a grocery shopping trip to Ramsey today...
As was the case last month too, The Velvet Cushion, my other blog, has not seen much action in April. But what was there was an eclectic mix: The Franchise Affair, by Josephine Tey (a fascinating and somewhat disturbing mystery from the 1940s); The Disenchanted, by Pierre Loti (the latest manifestation of my Istanbul obsession); and The Spoken Word Prevails, by Soenke Wortmann (combines International Relations and language -- how could I not...?).
So... Today is Day 71. Of 100. By the time I'm writing next month's review, we should be home... Which I'm looking forward to. A lot. Except I will miss all this too... A lot.
Ah, the fundamental human dilemma... We can only ever be in one place at a time, and we never know what the future will bring. Driving blind. In the dark. All the time.
Best not to think about it. One day at a time. Enjoy the moment...