I seem to be in reminiscent mode today. I think it was triggered by staring hard at a certificate which I have on my wall saying that I completed 69 miles of the SW Coastal path in Devon last year.
I think I have now done about 250 miles of this long distance path, and was on course to do another week in June, with 3 friends. However, this has had to be postponed to next year, and I just hope that I am fit enough to tackle it. It is an amazing walk, very up and down, with the most spectacular views.
And then I also thought about this day 5 years ago, when a bunch of us was in Budapest, celebrating one of our number’s 60th birthday. We were staying in the Hotel Gellert, a most amazing art nouveau building next to the Danube, with an indoor pool in the cellar and an outdoor pool complete with wave machine. To go there is like stepping back in time, it is so quirky. So I felt a bit maudlin as to whether I would ever stay in a hotel again.
But we had a lovely day today visiting friends in Hampshire, and having lunch in their wonderfully well maintained garden, which has had hours of loving care lavished on it during lockdown. We looked out to the field beyond and listened to the birds. It was 27C and it was like being on holiday. I drove 100 miles for the first time for ages. it truly felt like the Big Adventure. It is so nice to have a face-to-face chat, video calls do have some limitations.
The friends we visited had given me limestone earrings from the Croatian island of Brac, so I wore those today. It seems that Brac is solid limestone, so they are going to get an awful lot of very smart earrings out of that.
lockdownblog 
A lot of earrings indeed. I went to Brac and managed to visit the quarry and get a beautiful bowl safely home. The shop were proud to tell me the White House in Washington and The Brandenburg Gate are both made with stone from their quarry.
So as you wear your earrings you can imagine they are tiny pieces from one of them.
I wonder which?
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