Life goes on.....
2016 has been a very different year, for obvious reasons. I am grateful to family and friends for amazing and generous support, and encouragement to believe in the future. It has been interesting, and madcap in parts, but I should start by apologising to everybody I promised to visit and didn't. It is not because I didn't want to see you, just that there has been a certain lack of forward planning.
Hamish and Alys suggested I buy a camper van, so I did. A little Peugeot Boxster van with Autosleeper conversion which met my specification of being big enough to have its own loo because I don't like walking across campsites in the rain at 3 a.m. Small enough to be economical and cheap on ferries. When you have a motor caravan you have to Go Somewhere, I chose Orkney, via the west coast, and just to be difficult, back via Brora and Galloway. This happened in May, accompanied by good friends Richard and Linda Mead from Oban to Thurso, and by Hamish for a few days on Orkney.
First to Arran
First to Arran
Deer on Arran
Then via Campbeltown and Oban to Iona
Iona Abbey
Thus to Orkney, which is a World Heritage site because of its neolithic remains.
Standing Stones - Stenness
If you go to http://www.maeshowe.co.uk/index.html on 21st December at sunset - remembering that sunset is early in Orkney - you will see the remarkable sight of sunlight entering the Maeshow Chambered Tomb down its long entrance passage and illuminating the inside of the tomb, said to be an extraordinary experience.
There has also been time to fit in a few outings with granddaughter Holly who, bless her, has a passion for aircraft. Can't think where that came from....
Gloster Javelin at RAF Cosford
De Havilland Dragon Rapide at Imperial War Museum, Duxford, in which Holly took her first ever flight.
and time also to do some car stuff with Hamish
(Think its a) Riley at Cholmondeley Castle
Rare car badge at Chateau Impney
Linda, Richard and I also managed visits to the National Railway Museum and York Minster - Mystery Plays indoors, magic, so much more comfortable than sitting in the rain in St Mary's Abbey.
and we went west, to Tewkesbury and Hereford
The Heart of Yorkshire - the Great West Window of York Minster
and we went west, to Tewkesbury and Hereford
Linda and Richard at Hereford
Then in September, great excitement, a visit to Nepal to see the work of Child Rescue Nepal where I am a Trustee. Calling in in Delhi on the way there to visit my old friend Rajeev Dhavan who I have not seen since Cambridge in 1970, a great pleasure and magical couple of days.
Humayun's Tomb in Delhi.
Swayambhunath Temple, Kathmandu
I was enchanted by Nepal, who could not be, and excited by the work of Child Rescue Nepal, whose website you can visit here. I met some wonderful people, made new friends, and hope very much to return, maybe in 2018.
Last trip of the year before the cold and the fog closed in was to Scotland, with a couple of days in Glasgow to visit the wonderful museums in Glasgow, Kelvingrove and the Burrell Collection. Kelvingrove is simply magnificent, a real tour de force of an exhibition. I was dismayed to find that the Burrell, which is not much more than thirty years old, is having to move out of its premises because they leak so badly they threaten the exhibits.
In between times I have managed a visit to London most months for committee meetings of Child Rescue Nepal and the Anglo-Thai Society. These visits have become a cultural event, since I almost always manage to attach a visit to the National Gallery or the Royal Academy. We are so blessed to have such amazing collections, so well curated and so well displayed and explained, we take so much of it for granted.
And good times photographing Alice making real progress with her horse Lizzie, which jumps like a champion. Scarlet, her other star, has made two serious efforts to die in the past twelve months which has been more than mildly upsetting, so Lizzie's success has been something of a consolation.
Alice and Lizzie strutting their stuff.
As compelling evidence of senile decay, at least in my case, Hamish and I have decided to become participants in motoring events in 2017, and have bought a 103 year old Model T Ford, Mary Lou, who will exercise us on summer weekends.
Hamish and Ricky practice driving Mary Lou
The proposed Cathedral tour was largely put aside this year, but I hope to get back to it in 2017. In the meantime, best wishes to all who have read thus far, I hope you have a peaceful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks to my friends, my facebook friends and most especially to Alice, Holly, Rick, Alys and Hamish for their boundless support during 2016.
