Do you know what? I'm such a lucky beggar!
I love music, and singing (and no, I don't care two hoots whether someone overhearing me doesn't like it!) and how I feel at any given moment tends to prompt the remembrance of some song lyrics, or the words of a hymn, which exactly describe that feeling, or perhaps put a particular incident right into context. It happens all the time, and Freda is sometimes initially a little mystified when I nudge her and say something like "Didn't we have a 'Loverly' time?" (A reference to a once popular song [Day trip to Bangor] immortalised by Fiddler's Dram.)
And hence I arrived at today's post title: Yesterday's trip out in our son's car took us among some beautiful scenery, on roads which I hadn't travelled for many years. (I was so unsure of the route to take, that I hunted out a map for Heaven's sake!) We ended up at the small village of Blanchland, in the Derwent Valley. The journey was an absolute joy!
I snapped one or two pictures, which I hope will give you some idea of the landscape and the pleasure it gave us as we trundled along at 30 and 40 mph, like proper 'Sunday Drivers' ! (Actually, I kept pulling over to let any cars which appeared in the mirror to pass safely.)
We drove for miles along roads which were softly dappled by the sunlight streaming through the myriads of different trees, stretching upwards from behind the dry-stone walls delineating where the boundaries between modernity and tradition lay.
I had to stop on several occasions, as I was suddenly struck by a particular scene. This one above has an old (Norman, perhaps) stone-built Church poking out of the trees just to the right of the centre of the picture. The variety of greens and browns was fabulous, even to someone as colour-blind as I am! One of the things which greatly surprised me, as I clambered over branches and through roadside thistles etc. to get to where I could get a half decent photo', was the scents which took me back to my childhood outings with mam and dad, to places like 'Bluebell Wood', a place about which I've no idea at all of where it was! Beautiful, sweet smells which had a quite emotional effect, I'm not afraid to tell you.
Here's the Derwent Reservoir, showing the dam across the valley to the right
I thought that I'd better put this next one in, just so that you, Dear (foreign) Reader, would have the chance to see just how our past and present governments are determined to destroy our landscape in the mistaken belief that our future energy needs will be met by onshore (barely existent) wind power! Aren't they just eyesores?
Who was it who wrote, "Oh to be in England, now that summer's there"? (Or something like that.)
But, these scenes, or others equally as beautiful and restful, are available to anyone in England who is able to travel just a few miles into the countryside. While the post title perfectly summed up yesterday's contentment; I'm still luckier than most Englishmen! "Why is that Mr Edward?" I can almost hear you ask. Simply because I am able also to spend so much of my time in a country whose beauty is completely different, but no less appealing; Egypt, of course!
On the way back home, we took an entirely different route (once I got on the road, I didn't actually need the map. I would have been so embarrassed to have to rely on a map after spending most of my life wandering the roads of this 'loverly' country!) We came across a sign which set my imagination running:
What if it was really there, the 'Stargate', and guarded (as usual) just by the world's most stupid and inept military officer of all time:
Perhaps we could gain access and catapult ourselves back to Luxor? I suppose that the main trouble would be that we'd end up in the wrong epoch.
Perhaps the past or future Pharaohs would prove to be more brutal than President Mubarak, or more religiously intolerant than President Morsi's Brother Muslims? Or perhaps we'd even be sold into slavery by the wandering Arab slavers, which we have read so much about, from former times.
I don't think I'd like that very much, so I think we did the right thing by just making our way back to Windy Nook, and sausages!
I love music, and singing (and no, I don't care two hoots whether someone overhearing me doesn't like it!) and how I feel at any given moment tends to prompt the remembrance of some song lyrics, or the words of a hymn, which exactly describe that feeling, or perhaps put a particular incident right into context. It happens all the time, and Freda is sometimes initially a little mystified when I nudge her and say something like "Didn't we have a 'Loverly' time?" (A reference to a once popular song [Day trip to Bangor] immortalised by Fiddler's Dram.)
And hence I arrived at today's post title: Yesterday's trip out in our son's car took us among some beautiful scenery, on roads which I hadn't travelled for many years. (I was so unsure of the route to take, that I hunted out a map for Heaven's sake!) We ended up at the small village of Blanchland, in the Derwent Valley. The journey was an absolute joy!
I snapped one or two pictures, which I hope will give you some idea of the landscape and the pleasure it gave us as we trundled along at 30 and 40 mph, like proper 'Sunday Drivers' ! (Actually, I kept pulling over to let any cars which appeared in the mirror to pass safely.)
I thought that I'd better put this next one in, just so that you, Dear (foreign) Reader, would have the chance to see just how our past and present governments are determined to destroy our landscape in the mistaken belief that our future energy needs will be met by onshore (barely existent) wind power! Aren't they just eyesores?
We are truly blessed!
But, these scenes, or others equally as beautiful and restful, are available to anyone in England who is able to travel just a few miles into the countryside. While the post title perfectly summed up yesterday's contentment; I'm still luckier than most Englishmen! "Why is that Mr Edward?" I can almost hear you ask. Simply because I am able also to spend so much of my time in a country whose beauty is completely different, but no less appealing; Egypt, of course!
On the way back home, we took an entirely different route (once I got on the road, I didn't actually need the map. I would have been so embarrassed to have to rely on a map after spending most of my life wandering the roads of this 'loverly' country!) We came across a sign which set my imagination running:
Perhaps we could gain access and catapult ourselves back to Luxor? I suppose that the main trouble would be that we'd end up in the wrong epoch.
Perhaps the past or future Pharaohs would prove to be more brutal than President Mubarak, or more religiously intolerant than President Morsi's Brother Muslims? Or perhaps we'd even be sold into slavery by the wandering Arab slavers, which we have read so much about, from former times.
I don't think I'd like that very much, so I think we did the right thing by just making our way back to Windy Nook, and sausages!
No comments:
Post a Comment