Dear Reader,
I put this poem on the blog this week to remind me of the many journeys I have taken in my long life and now, sadly, can no longer enjoy except from the sitting room sofa. My most favourite travel experience was going to Marrakesh in the 1970's. It was just so different from anywhere I had ever been. I went to school in Paris as a teenager and stayed in Gibraltar with an aunt and uncle in the 1950s but had never seen anything like the colour and wonder of Marrakesh. I went with my first husband who was very handsome, blond blue eyed and tall. And he was followed everywhere with promises of exotic times with the young boy's mother, sister, aunt, themselves. I didn't count at all. I loved the golds, yellows and all the rich colours in the Sioux, and seeing camels trotting down the streets was so exciting to me. I think of that holiday with lovely memories, it was so different from Europe.
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Francis has been in hospital this week again with the dreaded UTI (Urine Tract Infection). It is a beastly disease and apparently very difficult to get rid of and he has been very unwell. I had it too and am not sure it has entirely gone even with the help of anti-bio tics. I hate pills and frequently think they do more harm than good with the side effects.
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from Gerard Manley Hopkins May 3rd 1866 in Oxford
Cold. Morning raw and wet, afternoon fine......Cowslips capriciously colouring meadows in creamy drifts. Bluebells, purple orchids. Over the green water of the river passing the slums of the town and under the bridges swallows shooting, blue and purple above and shewing their amber-tinged breasts reflected int the water.
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Journeys
Young,
we fly to distant places,
walk the Silk Road,
swim in the Nile,
climb Kilimanjaro,
sail the great seas,
picnic in the desert
under the stars.
Middle aged, with children,
we travel to Europe,
walk in the hills,
ski, surf board, visit museums,
exclaim at the Eiffel Tower,
swim in rivers,
raid the High Streets.
Grandparents, and old now,
we travel all over the world,
enjoy lions in Africa,
natives dancing in Bali,
big white whales in vast oceans,
and explore National Parks
while drinking cups of tea,
preparing for the unknown
and longest journey.
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With very best wishes, Patricia
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