Picture perfect in the UK

30.5.2018

I am now back on our farm and busy experimenting with olive oil production. Most of my olives had fallen off whilst I was away but I managed to gather a bucket full to crunch and press. 

Al, Bo and I spent last week staying with my friend Jill in the UK.  She made us very welcome and we all had long talks on serious topics and had fun hanging out together.  I never expected to get a chance to travel with my adult children like this so the whole experience was a rare treat, for me, anyway. They are such good company.

Luckily for us it was warm and sunny every day, and all the late spring flowers were blooming.  My sister’s garden was awash with colour from rhododendrons, azaleas and wild flowers and all the trees had fresh green leaves.  Someone had mowed the lawn into perfect lush stripes and cut all the borders perfectly. 

My cousin and two of her daughters arrived from Yorkshire and my sister’s children drove in from their various homes so we had a big family gathering.  Edd and I knew the Yorkshire mob well because we spent a lot of time with them when they were young, and they have also visited us in Australia. it was great to catch up with their latest news. 

My sister had the funeral all planned, and caterers organised, so there was not as much work to do as we expected.  It all went well, and mum was buried with my father and my brother in the local church grave yard.  Then we had afternoon tea on the lawn at my sister’s place.  I was very touched because several of my personal friends from 40 years ago came along.    This was important because my mother was 97 and there were none of her friends still alive to be there.

We were only in the UK just over 4 days but when we got a little spare time Bo, Al and I went for walks.  Al had hired a car at the airport, so we were able to drive to places that I had loved as a child and renew almost forgotten memories.  The cotton grass was in flower by Flash lake, but the blaze of golden sand across the lake floor had been covered with debris. The devil’s jumps had not changed, and the purple rhododendrons were still growing wild.  The beech trees in the Punchbowl were like old friends and the stream looked identical to the stream I see at night in my dreams just as I fall asleep. 

Al drove us around along all the back roads and I marvelled as one glorious old building was followed by another where ever we went.  With the sunny weather and the flowers everything looked more like a movie set than real life.  I had forgotten that the area was so beautiful.  I have visited the UK every 5 years on average but most of that time I sat talking to my parents to make up for living at the opposite ends of the earth.  This is the first time I have been able to visit the places in the woods and commons that I so loved.

Al took photos of all this and I will post some when I get them.

Bo took her role as a brewer’s wife seriously, so we fitted in regular beer sampling at local pubs.  I am afraid to say I still prefer the warm, English bitter to modern fizzy beers.  Finding gifts to take home was difficult but we did not allocate much time to shopping.