Sakura

AS you read this post, please listen to this beautiful rendition of Sakura, well-known folk song from Japan, describing the majesty of the Spring Cherry blossoms.  

Last weekend, our Cherry tree (sadly, not one which provides fruit), was at its absolute peak-beauty!

As I stood beneath its bendy branches, enjoying the pale pink hues against the blue, cloudless sky, I reflected on the utter joy of creation! How lucky I am, to see these flowers, feel this beauty and know the joy of these tiny blooms and their fleeting, transient beauty.

I thought it would be only polite to share them with you.

At the weekend, CBC and I went to Colchester.  As usual, we left it too late, we'd been to Maldon to pick up CBC's new glasses and then drove on to Colchester.

It was nice to visit somewhere different.  We ate dinner at a Vietnamese place called Elsa's.

Earlier in the day, CBC and I went to visit our newts.  We only saw a few.  Several were hiding.

Did I say that one turned up on our doorstep the previous week! I wonder what it wanted?

On Sunday, I had a madly busy day as I was covering first flute for two concerts with Orchestra of the City.  The concerts were part of the Amersham music festival.

Alas, there were engineering works on my local line, meaning, I had to use the alternative railway line. I left home at 10.30am and arrived in Amersham at the church at 13.45! 3 hours 15 to get there and to compound matters, the Jubilee line suffered from a critical failure of the signalling system which lasted at least 11 hours!!!

The concerts, one a children's concert and the other an evening concert, both went really well. I enjoyed playing first flute with this orchestra as I usually play 4th or 3rd (usually Alto flute) or even 5th flute with them! It was a real privilege.

As I knew it was going to touch and go whether I'd make it in time to avoid the rail replacement bus doom, I literally undid my shoes and collapsed my music stand as the audience were applauding and virtually knocked people flying as I attempted to leave the church  at 21.05 and cycle the mile or so to the station. A trumpeter and a fellow flautist were both running for the same train as I cycled.  I was amazed that the trumpeter arrived only 3 minutes behind me! Sadly, we missed the fast train, but got the Metropolitan line soon after, which takes double the length of time.  The trumpeter and I spent most of our hour journey feverishly researching the best way for us both to reach our destinations since the Jubilee line was unbelievably STILL not working!  I decided to take the alternative train line as I thought it would still get me home quicker than the rail replacement.  Alas, it would involve a 5 mile cycle at the other end and my bike lights had died!  Luckily, a kind man lent me his charging block and then unexpectedly, despite it being almost midnight, CBC came and picked me up so I didn't have to cycle. I thought he'd be asleep! So I got home 40minutes sooner than via the rail replacement! 

I was unbelievably tired and hungry by the time we got home after 12.  I ate some left over dinner and was in bed by 1.

I was so sleepy on Monday morning!!!!

Tomorrow, my choir have a practice with an accompanist for the choir of the year.  I hope it goes well!

I keep wondering what all the other choirs are doing for their pieces and whether I should have made different choices!  Ah well, too late to change my mind now! 

 Only a few days till the holiday!

xx

The beauty and fungi of Juliet's Woods

Back in August, when we were in Northumberland, I was keen for us to have an evening walk and CBC suggested we drive to Slaley to visit a place called Juliet's Woods (however, another time I want to visit Slaley Forest).

We parked where you can see (spot the red car in the picture)

These photos are in a random order so enjoy my random musings.

CBC spotted this tree at one point

He decided to climb into it.

I wondered what he was photographing...

And later, I found out!

We came out the woods into a meadow at one point.

On the way home, driving along the Hexham Race course road, the sunset was incredible!

I thought this fungi's gills looked like a labyrinth. I am happy to know its name is Oak Mazegill- a very appropriate moniker!

This is what they looked like from above.

This tree had a beautiful heart-shaped hole.

Here's an old Brittlegill (Russula)- could be a Rosy Brittlegill or a Primrose Brittlegill more likely.

The light streaming through the trees was glorious and golden. Impossible to capture in a photo!

This Beefsteak fungus was easy to ID!

We saw a wealth of this fungus!

CBC spotted this very old and manky Chicken of the Woods under some holly! The brackets were unusually low down.

There were so many ebullient red berries around.

The Haws on the Hawthorn below looked tempting. You can make a lovely winter tonic from these or Ketchup!

Another little fungus- not sure what!

A view of the meadow again.

And here I am again!

Close ups of the meadow.

Here's a birch polypore looking a bit beaky.

This one even more so! Not sure what this was!

 Both CBC and I agreed it had been a magical walk, we even saw some deer and heard many squirrels. I even collected some hazelnuts! We must return!

Madeira Day 6 and 7 and 8

On day 6, we decided to make a walk which was not too far away from where we were staying.  The route is also a fairly easy one.  The route was PR8 Vereda Da Ponta de Sao Lourenco.  It is on the eastern-most peninsula on the island and is named after the caravel sailed by Boncalves Zarco, one of the three discoverers of the Archipelago of Madeira.  It is part on the Madeira Natural Park and the penisula is partial nature reserve ce.  It had a very different feel from the other walks we had done so far.  There are supposedly colonies of seagulls and other birds species. It is 4km there and another 4km back.  

Given its proximity to Funchal, it was obviously quite popular with lots of tourists so the carparks and roads leading to the start of the walk were heaving. It was also a different walk as it was quite exposed since it wasn't surrounded by trees.

It was lovely to see the sea and bays at many junctures.

I loved all the flowers we saw.

We reached the end of the walk and here you could go kiyaking or take a boat trip out to see dolphins or take a boat back. We decided not to but I enjoyed seeing the turbulent waters.

More flowers...

As we neared the car, we saw some really interesting rocks which looked very much like fossilized creatures!

We drove back to the hotel and I decided to go for a swim. To my chagrin, there were swimming lessons going on for the next two hours for a bunch of little kiddies and I couldn't use it!

CBC and I decided to try and go out for a meal locally and CBC found a place that was very individual, had a tiny menu.  Sadly, I cannot remember its name.  Weirdly, as we drove to get there, all of a sudden, I started to feel really queasy.  As we looked at the very meaty menu (game and that sort of stuff), I couldn't bear the thought of eating anything! CBC thought I was sulking because I wanted to go elsewhere but it was so strange that I felt so odd.

He ordered stuffed mushrooms

He then ordered me the beef stew.

And a salad for us.

I managed to eat a bit of salad and about 2 pieces of beef but it was a real struggle. At this point, CBC started to realise I genuinely didn't feel well and nobly ate most of the stew.

We headed back and I got into bed feeling utterly awful, my tummy felt terrible and I felt sick.

In the middle of the night, after many hours of grasping my tummy, I made my way to the toilet and then lay on the floor outside the bathroom. I felt like a change of scene might help me.  CBC came and made me go back to bed.

It was a long night.

In the morning, I was very slow getting up, still feeling very unwell.  CBC wanted to go to breakfast and hurried me up.  Just as we were about to leave, all of a sudden, I knew I had to be sick and ran for the loo.  After 6 times throwing up, I think I'd expelled whatever was irritating me.  CBC headed off for breakfast and left me behind to lay down.

After this, we decided to head out to walk.  Despite having felt so unwell and not having any food inside me, I felt it was probably best just to get outside. We headed to the north-east of the island to the PR6 trail, Levada das 25 fontes.    Waterfalls were to be involved.

It started raining heavily as we did this walk.  The first part was on road and it was quite a popular route.  We made our way along and reached the waterfalls which were lovely.  After around 8km walk, we came back and found a lovely cafe in the woods which had a massive queue. CBC and I managed to find a table. Sadly, the only thing I felt like eating was soup and they had run out of that so I decided to give it a miss.

I don't have any photos sadly!

Once we were back to the car, we decided to drive up to the northern coast to Porto Moniz where there are natural saltwater pools on the sea.

To our delight, once parking, we discovered, as it was around 4.30pm, the pool was free to enter though there were no facilities to use to change or store things.

I did a sneaky changing manoeuvre in full view under my sarong and changed into my tankini.

As I entered these breath-taking pools, it was the first time all day I felt well.

It was blissful!

We drove home, after a walk around town. I should mention at this point, that wild nasturtiums grow absolutely everywhere in Madeira and I took the opportunity to collect some seeds

When we got back to Canico and got changed, having not eaten anything, I needed something to eat so we went out to La Carbonara which had an extensive pizza and pasta menu.  I ordered a lentil soup and a half portion of Spaghetti bolognese which was absolutely enormous!  CBC ordered a meal which he didnt realise had chicken in it.  His flexitarianism doesn't include chicken so he was very sad.

The next morning, we went for our final Buffet breakfast and then packed up our things. As our flight wasn't till 5ish, we left out stuff with conceirge and walked down to the sea front in Canico via the supermarket...

 

Where I picked up this epic bag of Pick and mix crisps! I love foreign crisp trying!

I was pleasantly surprised by the beach there. It was stony but the sea looked clean and  I wished I had come to swim here when I couldn't get into the hotel pool

If it hadn't started raining and I had no towel, I might have swum.

I sat and read my book on the beach until we had to shelter in the nearby cafe because of the rain.

I doodled on some stones.

We made our way back towards the hotel, passing monster aloes.

Beautiful flowers and lots of sea food restaurants which we wish we'd known were there.

I love the street signs on Madeira. Like lots of the municipal walk ways, they are beautiful!

CBC downloaded the Bolt App and we got a very cheap ride to the airport in a yellow car.  Public transport would have taken 1.5 hours. This took 10mins!

At the airport, I marvelled at the myriad tins of sardines for sale!

We'd had a wonderful holiday in Madeira and were so grateful to have had this time away together, away from the anxieties of real life and work!

We got home around 12.30am, via the X30 bus and a taxi and then I was up for church the next morning at 9!

xx