Blogs from Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 15

It's that time of the day again. Blog time . Time to catch up on another 24 hours of similar news. In the same place , sitting in the same chair perhaps we think we ought to sleep in Gabby tonight. I have lost a sock in the washing. That is the excitement for the day. It will turn up. Probably stuck in between the bedding in Gabby. How I long to write a different heading . No longer Derbyshire and Chesterfield but somewhere else . Somewhere where I can see and hear the sea. To smell its distinct smell . To walk around a garden and smell the flowers. To get in Gabby and set off somewhere.Anywhere . Dont mind a bit of travelling . It feels though a long time before we will get ... read more

Gabby the motorhome is more home than away. She is parked up chomping at the bit waiting to get away. We are about 30 days away from our cancelled Scandanavian oddysey. So the countdown has changed now to months rather than weeks as we hope to get away early September. I doubt it will be the far north this year . Looks like Autumn in the Ploppy Knees as Sion calls that area of Greece known as the Pelopenese . Motorhomers in their droves are putting their vehicles on SORN - off road until the lockdown ends . They then get a refund on their excise duty . We have not done it and probably will not do it . The government is probably going to need that revenue after this crisis is over. The days ... read more

By my bedside I have a calendar. I tear off one day at a time. The topics they cover are all eastern in flavour. Some days I get a proverb which may be Korean , Chinese or Indian. Another day it will be some deep Buddhist philosophy. It may be the sayings of Gandhi or some Hindu seer . What seems noticeable at the moment is that each seems prophetic. As if someone already knew that we would be in the midst of a crisis that is world wide and knows no boundary. They are sometimes thought provoking, sometimes too complicated to understand but most of the time there is a message in them . I look forward to each morning ripping off another day to see what the thought is . How about this one ... read more

The worlds gone mad. That's what it feels like. Gabby is sitting outside on the drive doing nothing. The planned weeks holiday has been cancelled . Wind back a few weeks. A few weeks ago we were walking around a Japanese Garden supposedly full of Hellebores - Christmas Roses to you and me. It was not the best of Japanese gardens nor were the Hellebores magnificent but at least we got out and about. Looking back it was good to be out and about in the fresh air. The storms had passed, The nights were starting to draw out and Spring felt just around the corner. The trees were starting to be tinged with green and the birds were nest building . We were going to a snowdrop garden . Never made it . We had ... read more

"The Drops of dew fall one by one. This world is perfect. Issa Kobayashi. Well it's not quite dew. In fact it's stormy weather . Storm Ciera has hit our small island and caused havoc. Rivers have broken their banks and overflowed into fields, roads, houses and shops. The high winds have caused structural damage. Trees have been blown down. Cars have floated down the streets which now look like rivers. Closely followed by Storm Dennis . More of the same . Just different parts of the country. The climate is changing and changing fast . Today is a bit of a shock. We wake to a car covered in frost . The temperature gauge shows zero . By 8.00 it has risen to 3 degrees and it feels like Spring has arrived . What a ... read more