Join me on my trips

A few warm days with blue skies at last and tulips all coming out in succession. Ophelia designed my birthday party invite. The next batch of tulips are flowering.

As the sun shines through the tulip petals you can hardly not feel joy at the natural world. While wars rage and people suffer nature keeps on giving. In line with my other pictures of villages I have been to here is an idea of Almirante in Northern Panama. Stopped in at the south African shop in Witney to get guavas, Eetsummore biscuits for the kids and chockits for me. There are fewer and fewer in a packet these days. 6 nations ended brilliantly on a sharp knife edge. Amazing number of trys and many fewer injuries, a joy to watch. France eventually won by a point. Just to keep up to date on the latest war. Now they are attacking residential areas in Beirut, gas and oil infrastructure in the gulf and we have to listen to the US bombets roar in the sky. 

While having supper I started wondering about those well laid dinner tables. Candlesticks Gravy boats Soup tureens Toast racks Napkin rings Lobster picks Stilton scoops Mayonnaise spoons Nutcrackers Knife rests Soup ladles Vegetable tureens with covers Electric carving knives Salt spoons Umpteen glasses Ice bucket Butter knife if butter was not already rolled Lots more varieties of knives, forks and spoons. Now on my supper table there was a piece of kitchen towel, a plastic mug, an already served plate of carrot, asparagus with a piece of brie from the nose and a peeled pear. All tasted great. A sunny day is back for a day and so ate outside for first time this year but then an hour later I was back indoors under a blanket having a snooze.

While the world, particularly the Middle East, is coming to terms with th e killing of Khamenei in Iran along with various henchmen and there is a lot of ongoing bombing by the US and Israel with retaliatory strikes by Iran I went to have coffee with my grandaughter Claire and her boyfriend Sam. What a lovely, happy, composed woman she has become.  Yesterday was Darceys 18th birthday so a nice way to see both girls. While the war has not yet directly affected most of the UK it probably wont be long. Today the 6th mortgages are set to rise and oil states are discussing stopping exports as Iran virtually closes Strait of Hormuz. Civilians in Lebanon, Iran, and Gulf States are living in fear of attack by one side or the other. What with Gaza and Ukraine and Sudan continuing to be suffering from strife this is not a time of world peace. But its also time for the 6 Nations. Tonight its Ireland v Wales where Wales is the underdo...

A bottle of water at Schipol costs £5.  So did without. Flight delayed haven't worked out how long this coming home has taken. Got back to a wonderful welcome of chocolate cake and hot apple from the kids. Thank you to them.  We tried out some of the chocs I brought back. General impression is that we all love central/south america

As I don't have to check out until 12 having  swim.  Beyond the railing is the sea with the tide in. Pelicans flying over.  Where the canal meets the sea and thus the waters mix, the fresh water fish, which would die in the salt, provide a feast for the birds. The paths we take in life often seem unimportant at the time but I realise that I'm here in Panama because of a path I took in 1963 and everything subsequent to that led me here. Nothing before that and nothing after had the same profound result. "Come to the ball with me tonight." That sealed it but there was no way I could know what would happen in the intervening 62 years. It is 31 and climbing degrees today, the hottest it has been so am glad to be leaving, probably also good for my barclaycard.