JOURNEY’S END

We have done it. We have arrived back safely to our home after seven weeks away and over six thousand miles of shared driving with a fully loaded car. An idiot coming out of a Ledbury side street could have meant that these first two lines would not have been written. As it was Michelle stamped on the brakes and we missed this hapless spectacled blonde (she would have to be, of course) who zoomed around the stationary front of us and disappeared on the end of my scream. Could she ever guess what her renamed ‘handle’ now could be.

In Woolhope the Swallows and House Martins were still feeding over the meadow in readiness for their migration to Southern Africa. When we arrived in San Miguel it was good to see Swallows were still here-summer is not quite over. It’s a sad time when they have all gone.

We left Portsmouth late Sunday evening (16th) to travel to Bilbao via Roscoff (that’s the way this sailing goes) which meant that we had a full day at sea doing a lot of wave watching. The ocean was smooth and so it was ideal to look out for any marine life. I saw the most number of dolphins ever on one trip and spent another couple of hours chatting to the ORCA representative on the top deck. Most were common Dolphin but he believed that some might have been striped. He could not clearly see the markings but from their behaviour he thought that is what they were. I had my first clear view of a Sun Fish. Birding wise there were some adult Gannets with Shearwaters skimming over the water. Next time that I do this trip I will have a much better look at the bird book but it is possible that we saw several Cory’s Shearwater with their brownish plumage (it would have been good to have an expert to hand) The ORCA man had studied in Marine Biology and got himself a 2.1 and so now he is looking for a job. He is also paying more attention to birds and studying The Collins Bird Guide.

Today the temperature is well above 30 degrees and we have already adjusted to being home but not the heat. It is Fiesta time and our friends from Hove are here as well. We are catching up with other friends who were left to in Spain in the heat and we intend to go to Sierra de Segurra with our Hove friends at the week-end.

Writing has had been firmly place on the back seat but I will be kick started on Saturday when I will be going to a poetry workshop being run by Jo Shapcott. Then I have a Poetry Stanza meeting followed by an ‘open mic’ evening on 8th October. In addition my home village, Tarrington, are preparing to bury a ‘time capsule’ for which I hope to have included a piece written by me.
It is now siesta time but I will post this one later.