Home Thoughts

I did almost nothing yesterday but doze and it was lovely! No guilt just some walks with Fintan and a bit of cleaning before a viewer came to see the house and then sofa time in the evening - divine!

Finally we are getting weather that suggests that summer may not be so far away after all. It's a lovely day here today - just been out with Fintan and we walked for over an hour along the Woodgate Valley walk taking in the birdsong, the spring flowers (even the naughty Spanish bluebells!) and the gentle sussuration (always wanted to use that word!) between the trees and the river.

I took some pictures on my camera phone as I don't imagine that I am going to see another spring in this valley again and I'd like to keep some images of it. I have been walking this area for at least the last five years or so and I know it well but it is still nice to have something to look at to remind me. I think it is a part of getting older that you start to notice the simple beauty in a green space, birdsong, blossom on a tree etc. I know that when I lived in London for all those years in my twenties I never really noticed nor cared about such things beyond the standard, "this is nice" when walking in the park. Living on the edge of the city you get a greater feeling of the connection with nature and an awareness of the passing of the seasons, such as they are in these days of global warming. I certainly look forward to seeing the first buds on the trees in the late winter / early spring and then the blossoming of the blackberries and apples as autumn approaches. Sometimes I think I'd like to be an oak tree in the valley and live longer than the life span we humans are allotted though I fear it might be a lonely life.

As much as I want to leave and start a new life somewhere else I have to acknowledge that I live in a beautiful part of a fairly ugly city! Patrick knows that I am committed to moving to Belfast and starting up over there so I feel I can get away with waxing lyrical about the life I am set to leave behind without him worrying that I might be having second thoughts.