At home in Leeds again

I arrived here safely after enjoying the train journey from Shrewsbury through the beautiful English countryside. I am trying to work out why people say it is so beautiful in New Zealand, when it is just as lovely here. In a different way of course. I think our scenery changes more dramatically and frequently as you travel through it.
But I love the green rolling farmland, with its patchwork of wheat fields, hedges and deciduous trees, and cows grazing peacefully. The old brick, or stone farm buildings and the occasional glimpse of a stately home through the trees. It all has that look about it which is unique, quite unlike the countryside in France.

While in Much Wenlock I was able to attend a Big Band practice with Lesley and David. Lesley conducts the band and David plays guitar. Lesley also plays in a saxophone quartet and on the Sunday we went to the back of beyond, somewhere south of Ludlow, for a performance. The group played the lunchtime gig as background music for people on a cross country walk, part of the Ludlow festival of food and wine. The 400 walkers stopped off at this beautiful reception lounge,(not all at once), in the depth of the countryside, for a spot of lunch; a dollop of stew, a bread roll and a half pint of ale! They each carried a beer mug on a yellow ribbon around their necks. I would have loved to have joined in the walk as it looked like a lot of fun. I just sat and enjoyed the music, providing the audience applause and reminding the walkers to show their appreciation.

We also went to a concert by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, at a huge, old church in Ludlow, also part of the festival. The concert was one of the highlights of my trip, which I had been looking forward to very much. I was not disappointed.
We all thoroughly enjoyed the music and their humour. What an incredibly professional and talented group! They are touring Britain at the moment and if you get a chance to go to a concert grab it. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying it.
Of course I have a particluar interest in the ukulele but even David (who is not easily impressed) was going off to a music shop the next day, to investigate ukuleles. I was very inspired. I can't wait to get home to start playing again. The following day on Radio Four there was an interview with the orchestra which was very interesting and filled in a lot of the history of the group.

Today, a brilliantly sunny day, I am off to explore Leeds to see what has changed since I was last here.

When I arrived, Daphne's mum Joan took me for a walk around Roundhay Park which is as lovely as ever. We used to live just down the road, at Bayswater Place, in a back-to-back terraced house and visited the park frequently. Lesley and David and I all lived there together at one stage. There is a new visitor centre which is very interesting and worth a visit.

Thank you to Jennie and Owen at Foxhole Rigg and Lesley and David at Foxglove Cottage for a really enjoyable and relaxing couple of weeks.
I loved their homes and gardens, both in beautiful settings. It was fun to share their lives again for a short time, and remember good times we shared in the past too. Altogether very inspiring.

This weekend I am hoping to go to Bradmore in Nottinghamshire and from there on to Tenby in Wales for a few days at the seaside, with Daphne and Stephen and family. It is a long way to go but I have to use up the rail pass anyway and the country side between here and there is lovely too.
I love the Pembrokeshire coast. I may be able to walk a bit further along the coastal pathway this time. Last time I visited Manorbier Castle, where The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe was filmed. A stunning spot.

Oh to be in England

I'm not quite in the Lake District but in the Howgills area of Cumbria. Jennie and Owen moved here from Grange-Over-Sands last year. It is an opportunity for me to explore yet another beautiful and new-to-me corner of England. Foxhill Rigg is a lovely old stone farmhouse a few miles up the road from Sedbergh, near Cautley.

We went out on Friday night to a celidh (or however one spells it.It took me
back to the good old days with Lesley and David and the monthly Phoenix Barn dances in Leeds. Over dinner with some friends beforehand, we got out the old photos of the
Colony Holiday at Ballacloan on the Isle of Man where I met Jennie!
Much to the delight of the men I had a photo of Jennie (in about 1972,) in a bikini, dipping her toes into the North Sea, and she had one in her album, coming out of the water on the same occasion.

It was a struggle to get dressed and go out after that, as all I really wanted to do was to go to bed. However I survived the evening and even managed a few dances. I tried to pick the less strenuous ones but the caller didn't really give us much warning.

It is cool and fresh but the sun is trying to shine.
It is beautiful here in Sedbergh, with fields of wildflowers and stone walls surrounding the farmhouse and the hills and moorland just across the valley.

Jennie is developing a cottage garden around the house and the chooks and
Meg the dog, hang out in the farm yard. The only sounds are the birds, a pheasant calling in the field next door and the lambs calling to their mothers on the hillsides. Occasionally a jet fighter screams across the valley but presumably they don't do that at the weekends, so all is peaceful.

The only other sound is the squeaking of Meg's purple rugby ball or her hot dog as she tries to get me to throw it for her. She has adopted me as her new friend, as I talk to her and occasionally do oblige by throwing something.

We went into the Lake District last night, where Owen conducted a concert of choral music in a very old stone church, up a hidden valley at Kentmere. The man explained that the graveyard around the church was not mown because of the profusion of wild flowers and that it wouldn't be mown until the flowers set their seed in July. It was a breathtaking spot. Supper and a glass of wine were served in the interval. All very civilised.

The Allegri Singers and Players are an amateur group directed by Owen. The music was by Schulz, Marini, Biber, Bach and Vaughan Williams. Not quite my cup of tea but in such a magical setting, on a chilly but sunny evening and against the view through a picture window, of farm and moorland lit by the setting sun, it was most enjoyable. I especially liked the string intstruments accompanying the singers.
The Vaughan Williams Benedicite was powerful and very appropriate given the setting.

As we came home through Sedbergh at dusk last night, a couple were still playing tennis and it was 10:30pm! The light on the patchwork of mown fields and the distant hills was amazing.

Today we are off up into the hills to a Quaker meeting and 30 minute silence on the fells. It sounds different and a good chance again to mix with the locals! It must have something to do with this week being the longest day of the year.

It's summer and I arrive in London

Monday morning, in London at Lynda’s flat in Westminster. I don’t have to think in French anymore!
I slept for about 12 hours last night. The trip from Paris was rather eventful. Yvette deposited me at the Gare du Nord station in plenty of time, but as we arrived, the Eusrostar terminal was being closed down as a bomb had been found in somone’s luggage!
Some people waited inside, while I beat a hasty retreat to the edge of the pavement outside. We waited an hour and I must say everyone was very calm and resigned. Thank goodness they found it. Someone was trying to board the train prior to mine, with a grenade! Finally they opened the station again and we left one hour late, not bad considering the magnitude of the event.
Most People slept all the way to London, not surprisingly, as we were probably all feeling a little frazzled. I know I heaved a sigh of relief when we finally pulled into St Pancras, just two and a half hours after leaving Paris.

Lynda was waiting for me and she whisked me off to her lovely little flat to get ready for lunch at the Ritz! A birthday treat for my 60th later this year. We sat on the terrace in the sun and had a delicious and rather exotic lunch. My soup was an onion cappuccino, with goats cheese tagliatelli, very creamy and delicious and unlike anything I had ever tasted. I had pigeon for the first time, two tiny but delicious morsels, and then the most amazing dessert I think I have ever had. I am lost for words! I find myself eyeing up pigeons in a different way now.
(Mmmm, you've got a nice plump little breast!)

Summer arrived in London yesterday, and as we walked home through Green Park and St James Park everyone had come out to strip off and sun themselves on the grass.
It really took me back to 1971 when I first arrived in London.

It is another gorgeous morning and Lynda and I are going to Greenwich along the Thames. A great day to find a little pub by the river for lunch.

Paris was magnificent. So much cleaner than I remember and the buildings take your breath away. I overdosed on art museums with my two day museum pass and travelled up and down the Seine on the Batobus on another two day pass. I stayed at the Hotel de Rouen for the first two nights, as recmommended by Chris Stark. It was tiny, clean, basic, friendly and comfy, but most of all central. I could walk to the Louve in five minutes.

Then I stayed in Yvette’s lovely apartment for two nights. Just around the corner from the Place de la Republique and delightful. I joined Yvette for an outing for lunch with the NZ-France assocaiation she belongs to. All a lot of fun and a chance to practise my French. I was very privileged to spend another few days having an authentic French experience.
Thanks to all the lovely hosts I had in France I really enjoyed my time there. Total immersion is definitely the only way.

After I left Michel and Michel and my home away from home in Montpellier, I spent “un bon weekend in Avignon” with Claire and Philippe, their son Francois, and an American student Garrett. We practised our French on each other! It was a very family oriented visit which I really appreciated. Sunday lunch on the terrace under the wisteria with Louis, Claire’s father, was wonderful. It was another very French experience.

Then two days in the countryside at Jonquerette with Ruthilt and Andre. They took me out and about with two American friends on a tour of the Vaucluse area. It was stunning and so Provencal, with all the poppies, olive trees, geraniums in pots, cream, pink and orange buildings,fountains and ancient churches. It was amazing. I really was privileged to have the opportunity to be there with such lovely people.

On to Cumbria later this week to spend a few days with Jennie and Owen. Of course Jennie is my daughters namesake. We were close friends here in London in the swinging seventies and I am looking forward to catching up with them in their “new,” very old farmhouse in Sedbergh. A chance for reflection and cross country walks.