A voyage of discovery

[Written Saturday lunchtime] This is my warm up exercise, since I’m fairly certain I won’t be able to write anything substantial until after lunch. I’m one of those people who are a slave to their blood sugar – particularly when hormones are jumping. I’ve hit the rambling, poor concentration, please-don’t-fall-over stage at the moment.

I am trusting this will be solved by asparagus, shallot and parmesan tart at one of my favourite writing restaurants.

Mmmmmm. Tart.

So far (and it’s only lunchtime) today has been a wonderful antidote to this week. The twisted scowl that had been fixed to my face as a result of stress, tiredness and PMS has been replaced by a beatific smile. There has been sunshine, and beautiful, hidden places, and time to explore.

It occurred to me that I don’t get enough time to explore, to do things just for the joy of it. Recently, I’ve spent so much time rushing from task a to task b, or from place a to place b, even relaxation time has only been what you do in between doing the other stuff.

Relaxation is an end in itself. Your own time is very, very important.

Having said all that, I started my Saturday morning by going to work. Luckily, the work in question was an hour and a half drive to a farmers' market, to chat to the lady who organises it in advance of an event we’re running next month. So it was work, but it wasn’t exactly a hardship. And, back in the car, duty done, I found myself thinking, “what next?”

I looked at the clock. My fingers skittered over to grab the map. I started to smirk to myself.

Then I did one of my favourite things – I looked at where I was (Brough) and where I wanted to be (home) and chose a circuitous, meandering way to get there, using roads like these.


The winding road... 

The sun was shining, the sky was aggressively blue. I wound my way through limestone hamlets huddled together for warmth, and sleepy sandstone villages dreaming of the glory days of Gentleman Farmers and Lords of the Manor. Sheep watched me pass, stately ash trees dipped their branches, and dark woodlands whispered their enchanting enticements. Come deeper…. Come into the shadows…. Tread lightly on our soft moss and never think to know sunlight again….

My lunch just arrived.

WOO HOOOO!

Where was I?

Ah yes. The glories of the Eden valley. Wish you could have been there. It was fabulous. ;-)

Well, since I’m getting some energy back, any more on this post would cross the line from warm up to procrastination, so back to Kier’s big, juicy steak….