1. I have been away in Wensleydale for a week on holiday. It was beautiful. The weather was reasonably kind, but it is probably part of the Yorkshire Dales experience to get a bit damp from time to time. We stayed in a tiny cottage on the hillside by Semer Water and walked a lot and communed with sheep and dry stone walls and barns. I lay around and read a lot. I enjoyed a brilliant first novel by Ross Raisin "God's Own Country". It's the voice of someone who really is a Yorkshireman observing the townies and their lack of respect for his world and realities. It's quite a dark story and also very funny with language, as a sort of Southerner, I can only guess the meaning of. I was gripped by the flow and the cadences. I would recommend this little novel to anyone who loves the Yorkshire landscape and its language. Wensleydale, on the other hand, is quite different from the northerly moors described in my book but I can imagine that the real people who live there have to deal with the same issues and feelings described. Wensleydale is pretty empty, huge landscapes of green and limestone outcrops and vast sky. It was magnificent and I came home feeling well rested and calm. For anyone vaguely interested I've uploaded some of the photographs I took of the trip to my Flickr page...
2. I raced back to York this morning to attend a composting course at St Nicks Environment Centre run by York Rotters which was designed to raise awareness and recruit volunteers to promote composting in the city. It was an interesting day. I probably didn't learn a huge amount I didn't already have some idea about but it was well presented. I met some interesting people, some of whom will go on to be volunteers, giving up time to help others get started and to represent the group at events and displays. In particular one very nice man who has moved to York recently from Forres and who had been involved with the Findhorn Community in the past. We got chatting and he was kind enough to give me his details and agreed to come along at some point and talk to the St Nicks group about fund-raising about which he has some good experience. It was a fine feeling to be back with people again and connecting. 3. As soon as I got home, I turned on the computer and there was a reassuring rush of email and MSN messages and I've started to catch up with friends and family. I think a mark of success for this holiday was that it felt like I was away for an age. A lot of stuff in my head has changed or moved about and that feels like a good thing. I got a friend request on Facebook from a pleasing bloke in Canada who it turns out is a friend of Jon, the lovely fellow with whom I connected with recently. We exchanged some email this afternoon which cheered me considerably and reinforced the feeling that the world is a better place for making friends, however you go about doing it...I even had a chat with he-who-shall-not-be-named and it was almost affable. Of course he told me off for flattering him but I find it irresistible. I cannot help wondering why we all spend so much time worrying about what the next person's motives might be for liking us. It strikes me that as i grow older I feel less inclined to be suspicious and more attracted to be accepting. Big Red was one of the first people to greet me today. It was unconditional and happy. He made me laugh out loud in "filthy gorgeous" sort of way. I can't hardly wait to see him again. I just have no idea what comes next but it was lovely to return to home and I'm amazed that I'm looking forward to tomorrow. That is something I might not have been able to say easily a year ago.
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