Monday, March 7th, 2016

Sad news from Northwick Park - our once inseparable pair of black swans are now a singleton widow or widower. Not entirely sure how you recognize male from female from a distance, and from a distance it would have to be; one day, I made the mistake of approaching them for a photo shoot, and was literally chased off their patch! There's something truly threatening about these birds as they run at you, with their six foot wingspan, all ferocious waddling and cawing! I am embarrassed to say that I did run! The monogamous nature of swans' relationships has been written about many times, so I won't ramble on about it, but it is unusual. I've now veered away from Alistair Cooke into 'Country File' or Diary of an Edwardian Lady'! It's hard not to write about the countryside when you live in an area of such peerless beauty as the Cotswolds, though.

We've had a very livable winter this year, with many sunny days. As you drive through the countless, undulating country roads, it seems each bend brings you to another stunning vista of rich pastures gently rolling hills, and, of course, countless sheep! I was a little worried that Irene had gone native on me the other day when she took herself off to watch.....lambing! Yes, this is the same Irene, late of Manhattan; never fear, though - the next day, we were off looking at antique shops, eyeing up truly magnificent and genuinely old furniture - for our American friends, this means 16th and 17th century pieces!

 We 'did' Amsterdam in late January - odd time of the year to go, as it was bloody freezing most the time we were there. The Netherlands shares the same kind of climate as Britain, so in late January it was damp, cold and windy! But what a great city Amsterdam is. We'd only ever 'flown through' the city before, so this was definitely on our to-do list. we went with our intrepid European 'fellow travellers' Ian & Loraine and revelled in the most viewable sights of the city - the van Gogh & Rijks museums, the real palace, Anne Frank's house. And I would add that unlike many 'famous' city sights, any one of these is worth the visit alone. We were warned about the coffee houses before leaving England, but you know, you really don't have to go inside them to savour the heady flavours of weed - some many people either living in or visiting Amsterdam smoke the stuff openly, that simply walking through the streets gives you a better than vicarious high!

I'll close this short post with a teaser - a picture of things past and times to come:

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