Yes, a post about lighthouses! I've always loved lighthouses without properly realising, and I've decided that the time has now come to officially embrace this. I've accumulated some nice photos over the years and being back in Ireland has given me an even more profound appreciation of all things sea and coast. Lighthouses represent safety and refuge in the face of danger, and there's something both incredibly romantic and forlorn about them; they are often to be found all alone and isolated in the most precarious of locations, and have been built to withstand and endure everything the elements can throw at them. To enhance their allure, lighthouse keepers commonly manned these lights up to relatively recently, and it's impossible not to feel the utmost admiration for these brave men and women. Even the name of the organisation responsible for the majority of lighthouses around Ireland, the Commissioners of Irish Lights, is impossibly romantic...
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Despite my predictions in my last post regarding our upcoming relocation to Cork and how frazzled it was all going to be, it's actually been nice and quiet as we wait on contracts etc. to be finalized before we move into our new house (the calm before the storm, I fear). This means I've had plenty of time to obsessively follow the Brexit campaigning leading up to the referendum which took place last Thursday, and I have been AGOG at the goings-on and the fallout...
I meant to include this in my previous blog post but actually, I now think it deserves a post all of its own (nearly)... This is a map of Wales where I've highlighted the various Places of Interest mentioned in my first Welsh roadtrip (here!) and my second (here!) - it's in Gallery format because otherwise it would be teeny-tiny and impossible to read, so just click on the image to enlarge. I've also put in some photos of my wonderful AA Road Atlas (all falling-apart and probably deeply traumatized from my manhandling over the years)... oh, the times we've had together! In a Big News alert, we have decided to move back across the Irish Sea and so, this is my fond farewell to England, the country I came to live in all those years ago (nine, to be precise... where has the time gone??). We've loved living here, but we feel it's time to be closer to our families and to return to the west of Ireland, where life is perhaps a bit more relaxed, and the horizontal rain is a faithful companion to the days. In the interests of documenting my time here, on the map below I've shown all (well, nearly all; I couldn't fit everywhere on my little map) of the places I've been to in England, some of which I've written about previously (if you're interested, these are: Oxford, the Isle of Wight, Cornwall, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, the Fens, and Liverpool). We've had many adventures here, and I can still vividly recall all of the roadtrips we've taken - I will definitely miss the English road network (proper non-windy roads! That don't make you sick!) and motorway services, along with my AA UK road map. In particular, the various seaside towns we've visited all have a special place in my heart... My England. Note: I couldn't fit my Lake District, Fens and Cornwall labels onto the actual UK landmass without obscuring other bits of it, so I've stuck them out to sea (hopefully you'll be able to figure out the correct geographical area they refer to!)... the Isle of Wight label is, however, accurately positioned (kind of) My trusty camera was my ever-present companion during my holiday and here are some photos (bear in mind that the weather was somewhat erratic - a couple of pictures have suspicious-looking blurry bits due to rain spots on the camera lens, but I think this adds an air of authenticity to the collection): I love going to the seaside, especially at this time of year. Last Sunday, Anthony, his sister, and myself hit off to Aldeburgh, on the Suffolk coast, for the day. It was really warm and sunny, which although not ideal for my most favourite seaside activity of cloud photograph-taking, greatly improved the mood of the party, and contributed to the general joviality of the outing (I've just read back over this and it sounds a bit like something out of a Jane Austen novel; how wonderful!).
I spent last weekend in London with Anthony, which was really quite lovely. To be honest, I don't often take the time to be a tourist in the city and just wander around. It is such a beautiful and interesting place and wonderful to visit, even though I couldn't live there - it's far too much of an urban environment for me (I think I may have mentioned my preference for trees and cows and being in the middle of nowhere, oh, about a million times before). This is my issue: with cities in general (and this is only my opinion; I don't want to offend any city dwellers), there's often so much sheer humanity that it can be overwhelming. I genuinely think that living in a city can be very hard and lonely for a lot of people, as society is tougher, and its inhabitants become somewhat desensitized to the suffering of those around them.
I went to Cornwall for my summer holidays last week and it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I had wanted to visit for many years but it's so far away, all the way over there, and it just seemed like a lot of effort. However! It was duly decided that Now was the time and so, off we went, armed with our trusty AA road atlas and several emergency packets of biscuits (I never travel anywhere without having at least one packet of biscuits on my person).
I had seen so many photographs of exciting-looking cliffs and unprobably-sandy beaches (seriously, white sand and green water? In the UK? Not a chance) and I really thought it couldn't possibly live up to all the hype, but I have to eat my words and admit that I was completely blown away. It is stunning. The light (everyone goes on about the light), the air, the scenery, the feel...it was like being a child again, running around on beautiful deserted beaches and scrambling along clifftop coastal paths, looking down on the water below. I came to the realisation that I love the sea very much, and I am at my happiest when I'm outside, surrounded by proper weather. I feel like a bit of an international jetsetter these days (oh, the glamour!): in the past few weeks I've been to Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, and last weekend I went to Oxford to visit some friends. [While all this gallivanting around is quite wonderful, it's very nice to have some time to catch up with everything and wash my socks.]
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About my blog
Really, it contains a little bit of everything, from a celebration of science and the English language to the joys of travel and the Shipping Forecast. The title ('Meanderings') is a fairly accurate description of its content: I write about different things as the mood takes me, but hopefully there's something in here for everyone... Categories
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March 2021
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And on another note... |
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