I often speak before I think (and equally often my words are accompanied by a horrified look from my husband or a whispered ‘inner voice’ and shake of his head) and I did so this morning. On our first day of level 4 isolation, chatting on the phone to my friend Brigitte, I said that […]
Great Britain: Part Five – The Frozen North
Circumstances have stymied my blog posting in recent weeks, including lack of access to decent internet that would allow upload. I’m still playing catch up from our travels last year and, given the current situation with the covid-19 pandemic, expect to have plenty of time in the next few weeks to do so. As we […]
Great Britain: Part Four – Grabbed by the Trossachs
October 2019 I’m a big sky girl and Scotland is a big sky country. So I’m a little disappointed when the clouds close in and truncate the view, flatten the tops of hills, hide beauty that I know is there. We turn to the Queen Elizabeth forest (clearly not Scottish Nationalist territory) surrounding Aberfoyle, walking […]
Great Britain: Part Three – Lakes and Hills.
October 2019 There’s a stark beauty to Bowness. Here the houses aren’t the warm hues that make other parts of the country picturesque, rather they are shades of grey. The stones here are harder so even though they seem to be haphazardly piled on top of each other, random shapes and patterns, they are straight-edged […]
Great Britain: Part Two – Into the Dales.
October 2019 The sky hangs low, cutting off the hilltops, and rain splatters the windscreen. In this light the grass is vividly green, snakes of pale wall dividing fields into random shapes and sizes. It is a sight unique to this country and typical of this county: Yorkshire. God’s own county. (Kiwis please note the […]
Coasting
October 2019 Nearing the north west coast of England Essie shows a large blue expanse to our left but, frustratingly, there are sand dunes in the way and no amount of stretching my neck will allow me to see over them. Finally the dunes break and there it is: the sea. I grew up as […]
Merry Christmas!
Circumstances (and fate) have conspired against me and this is not the blog I wanted to write. Instead I present a truncated version with a few words and a lot of pictures. Nothing says Christmas like a tree full of lights sparkling against the dark of a winter evening sky. Framed by curtains left open […]
Entrusted
The Temple of Ancient Virtue flips upside down into the lake, a perfect reflection looking up at its original. In this garden it’s one of many (often flamboyantly named) structures placed alongside still water for maximum effect, a swan occasionally gliding across, its gentle wake rippling the reflection but adding to the scene rather than […]
Return to NZ
If we lived in Oz (Australia) this would make a far better title! As we make our final drive south towards Heathrow and a plane to take us halfway around the world and home I feel I owe you an apology. A comment on a recent blog commended me on my discipline and for not […]
Two Tales of One City
(With acknowledgement to a far better writer than I for the title) My return to Sheffield, the place of my birth, a city I still refer to as my home city – even though I call Wellington home – is frustrating. It rains all day. We get wet packing the car; we get wet when […]
Tracy Annenberg 