I have been neglecting my blog over the last week or so. Between visiting old friends in hospital, meeting old friends for lunch, running round like a scaled cat to make sure all was ready for visitors arriving and then entertaining, feeding, catching up with news with said visitors the time has slipped away. I’m hoping to get back on track.
Yesterday my daughter and I and several of her offspring drove my Spanish sister to my English sister’s house, where she will spend a few days before heading off to visit various old friends in other parts of the country. We went out to lunch, sat and chatted, reminisced about this and that, and then my daughter and I and the various offspring who were with us drove home.
Having spent rather too much time sitting in the car, sitting down to lunch, sitting in my sister’s house, once we got back to my house we went for a brisk walk round the village, ln our usual route past the millponds and through the trees. Everyone sampled blackberries, who h are ripening nicely despite the gloomy predictions. (I must go out with a suitable container and collect some before they all disappear!)
Granddaughter Number Two spotted deer in the woods but most of us were too far ahead of her to share the experience and calling out to us to join her would have frightened the shy creatures away. In the village I noticed that it’s well-dressing time again. I have undoubtedly commented before that we don’t have an actual well for anyone to dress but they lean the artwork up against a tree. Since they introduced (or resurrected as some people would have it) the tradition the works have always had a theme: praising the NHS, Queen Elizabeth II, lifeboats (we don’t have a seashore but we do have reservoirs and that particular praise also went to mountain rescue organisation, which are useful on our hills) and this year the 175th anniversary of Delph Band!
This morning, trying to get back into my usual routine I got up and ran round the village, with a rather cloudy sunrise over the hills. The weather improved later and, besides, even early in the morning it was already quite warm.
And now I have mostly put things in the house back to rights: sorted out the beds, discovered a couple of items left behind, and vacuumed up the detritus left by three smallish children doing craft activities on my living room floor.
My Spanish sister drinks surprisingly little coffee, especially for someone who has spent well over 40 years living in Spain, but in good English fashion she does drink tea. We had some discussions about the best and the worst ways of making tea, agreeing that an awful lot of continental Europeans have no idea of how to make a good cup of tea. Mind you, according to this article, neither do a large number of young people in the UK, some of whom make cups of tea in the microwave and have never owned a kettle. That last fact surprises me as I was under the impression that many students live on pot noodles that just need hot water added to them. Maybe my impression is mistaken.
My English sister, in contrast, never drinks tea. This is the consequence of an aunt of ours who forced strong, sweet tea on all us whenever we went calling. She also fed us spoonsful of honey, turning the same sister off honey for life. On the other hand, I drink both tea and coffee and enjoy honey on my toast.
My English sister used to like coffee made by heating a cup of milk and adding a sprinkle of instant coffee and some sugar. Basically, she likes milky drinks but is not a great fan of real coffee. Her husband, we discovered yesterday, likes his coffee with four spoonsful of sugar and a good dose of Carnation milk - sweetened condensed milk. This led to my Spanish sister and me reminiscing about our early visits to Spain as students when it was difficult to find anywhere that served coffee with fresh milk. We also reminisced about the difficulty in those early days of travel of finding ladies’ toilets in cafes; we remembered being given a key to a toilet reserved for women, usually at the rear of the establishment.
Nothing like a bit of nostalgia!
Travel was supposed to broaden your mind after all!
Today I read that some experts believe that the days of foreign holidays for all are numbered. Severe heatwaves and the increased frequency of wildfires both affect choices of holiday destinations on the one hand. On the other the world pressure to reduce carbon emissions, assuming we can reduce them enough to slow down global warming, means that there will be restrictions on air travel, unless a more eco-friendly way of doing it is found. Prices will rise and soon only the rich will be able to fly to chosen destinations.
Things were simpler when my sisters and I were very young!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment