Places to visit when it's over

Imagining I am on a staycation in spite of everything.

I normally explore the weird and wonderful in the English landscape and write about it every couple of weeks. At the moment I’m confined to discovering the delight in my immediate surroundings, or in memory. If this sounds like something that would interest you, why not subscribe? Or, if you’re already subscribed, consider recommending to a friend to whom it might also bring joy?

The thing I miss most is the freedom to explore. The freedom to wake up on a Saturday morning and jump into a car or a train, say ‘where shall we go today?’ That is where many of these adventures originated, from the impromptu trip to the Chess Valley to the escape to Bury St Edmunds.

It transpires I have become the sort of person I said I would never be — that is, who is unable to relax at home. (Yes Dad, I’m looking at you 👀 😂) Day blending into day between the four walls makes it difficult to distinguish weekend from week, and to refresh your mind from workday concerns. I have realised how crucial a change of scene had become for me.

I have been compiling a list of places I will go when this is all over. In some way it keeps me going.

Snowdonia/North Wales. Before COVID, we were learning to climb. We were meant to go to wales in April to do our lead course. Now, I’m certain I’ll shit myself the next time I’m on the wall. But I miss the cliffs and the Welsh rain, the mist beading on strands of your hair and the heather.

What I wouldn’t give for a dreich day in Wales like this! (‘Dreich’ is my new word. I learnt it this week from a book about Scottish Art. Aled knew it and tried to claim it was Welsh but it’s actually borrowed from Gaelic, which is interesting in itself).

Skye. Another trip we were meant to take last spring. I haven’t been since I was a child, when we swam in the Fairy Pools in Glen Brittle, one of those weird places that has since become less a place and more a piece of instagram wallpaper. I am fascinated by this idea — how there can be two realities of a place: the internet meme seen by the rest of the world, and the one for the people that live there. I was reminded of this when I read about residents of Bourton-on-the-Water complaining about the inundation of visitors this summer.

Not Skye, or Torridon, but Glencoe, early morning, September 2019.

Torridon. Another place we used to visit as a child. I miss the wide mountain views with almost no roads visible to the sea. Aled has never been so we were thinking to go sometime this year.

Glencoe the same morning. We heard the stags rutting.

Somerset. A part of the country I have never visited. Yet very rich in stone circles and other prehistoric sites such as Cadbury Castle and Stanton Drew.

In the meantime, we must content ourselves with the scenes of the neighbourhood:

A heroic effort from the Everyman, trying to make the best of the situation.

Sorry for the crap photo — but I’d never before noticed these cute little fire buckets outside Tesco

The last of the snow in the London morning.

8am, around sunrise.

Soon we will wake up and it will no longer feel like the middle of the night! I would struggle to live in a place without seasons. I always forget the roundel of the year, somehow it feels like a surprise every time. Even more so now.

Sorry for the short and much reduced update. I hope you are well and taking care.

The story from last week — here is part two. In which we meet our heroine, new to the seaside town of the Fish, come to stay with Julia and Giles in their top floor airbnb. Does she know anything about the Fish? Why is she here? Who knows! 🤷‍♀️ I’m as curious as you to find out!

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I hope you enjoyed this week’s (very!) random musings. Where are you longing to visit when all this is over? Please leave a comment or let me know on Twitter!

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Sincerely,

Ruth