We arrived at Port Appin on the west coast of Scotland in time to down a drink before the ferry left for the Isle of Lismore.
The wind was teasing the water and shifting the shafts of sunlight to illuminate a cluster of white painted cottages one moment, then a strip of lime grass, and then the whole side of a mountain. Each glimpse a fresh world of glory.
This is why we come.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has said: “After Sunday’s attack in Orlando as Christians we must speak out in support of LGBTI people, who have become the latest group to be so brutally targeted…
We must pray, weep with those affected, support the bereaved, and love without qualification…
The obligation to object to these acts of persecution, and to support those LGBTI people …arises from the unshakeable certainty of the gracious love of God for every human being.”
About 330 million years ago, warm seas deposited marine sediments in layers which became compressed to form limestone rock and were subsequently eroded by ice and dissolved by rainwater.
Today, between heavy rain showers, we wandered the resulting shoreline limestone pavements. Further out into Morecambe Bay the mud flats and shallow water provide rich feeding for birds such as shelducks.
We worshipped with the community of St Bartholomew’s church in the delightful South Lakeland village of Barbon. The friendly community know how to welcome strangers and we enjoyed refreshments and a good chat before taking a wander around the village and farm lanes.
Surrounded by Union Flags in a beer garden at lunchtime we reflected on Friday’s 90th birthday celebrations. Happy birthday Ma’am!
The view along this stretch of the River Lune at Kirkby Lonsdale was said by John Ruskin to be ‘one of the loveliest in England, therefore the world’. It is a beautifully balanced pastoral scene of woods, hills, river and meadows which was also loved and painted in the 19th century by Turner.
Today the sun was warm, the air scented by meadow-sweet and the water clear. It was a very good place to be.
We drove up to Lancashire and are chilling out in a friend’s house. Hospitality has been a theme throughout this last year.
We are in receipt of the gift of time with friends and family and now the sunshine and warmth of the west coast has amazed us. This is the warmest we have been since Italy. Superboa!
These few days we are catching up on necessary jobs which have had to wait until we got back to the UK.
We still found time to visit an exhibition of photographs commemorating the first launching of the liner and telling the tragic story of the loss of life when the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on the 15th of April 1912.
The image is of 6 year old Thomas Douglas Spedden who was one of the many 1st class passengers to survive. By contrast, few 3rd class passengers lived to tell the tale of that terrifying event.
Heading away from the exhibition we discovered a table tennis table and took on two Romanians. We didn’t quite hold our own.
This morning we said goodbye to our friends in Paris and drove to Dunkirk to catch the afternoon ferry to Dover. The roads were extremely wet, and the ferry crossing wild. Then, through the rain, we saw the white cliffs and were back on UK soil in no time.
We drove on to a small town in Berkshire where we met our latest family baby, just a few weeks old. It was incredibly precious to hold her and enjoy our first encounter.
We are sitting in front of a log fire ablaze within a Jacobean fireplace in Old Hall, Sandbach. The Hall is a wonderful example of Elizabethan wattle and daub architecture as well as one of only two pubs in the UK listed as Grade 1.
It feels entirely appropriate to be in a building that became a coaching inn in the 19th century. It is a great place to catch up with friends as well as enjoying our last stop before we start packing for our long road trip on the continent.
Woke yesterday morning to a blanket of snow and a sheep staring myopically across the freezing fields towards the Lake District.
At least we get chance to try out the winter tyres we need by law when we drive across the Alps in Italy. So far no slip sliding away.
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