Things I will miss about the UK

1. The friends we have made here.

2. Boss and Cherub, whom I do not know when, if ever, I will see again. With my nieces and nephews, I knew I would remain a part of their lives. I may not stay a part of Boss’ and Cherub’s and that causes a slight, worrisome ache. And oh, as I write this, a tear. I am a sap.

3. Flowers. It’s not that other places or Australia don’t have lovely flowers, but I noticed flowers more over here. I’m tempted to list individual flowers but that would make this list burdensomely long. I will particularly miss snowdrops and bluebells, which I very much doubt I will see in Aus or elsewhere.

Lots of groovy flowers.

4. Seasons. Seasons is why I noticed flowers more. I love the changing of the seasons.

5. Birds, especially tits and robins. As I type this a coal tit is calling someone from the tree outside my office window. Whoever he’s looking for, she’s not answering. My office robin returned yesterday: I came back from getting my morning coffee and found him flying around my office. I duck and wove to get to the window (which had been open a crack) and threw it wide open and then stepped into the corner, making myself as still and thin as possible so that he would fly out again. He also left a little goodbye present for me on one of my files.

Bullfinch, Fort William, Scotland, August 2010.

6. Really, really cold weather. I truly will miss this. I love winter – proper winter. I loved icy mornings and frost covering everything and the ever-present hope of snow. And oh, how I love snow. Someone remind me of this when I am complaining about not feeling my fingers, toes or nose during our cycle ride.

A snow covered oak in The Common, Southampton, UK, February 2009.

7. Long summer evenings.

8. Decent public transport and the ease of a car-free life here. I suspect Aus will not be an easy car free life and that we may not remain car free for very long. We’ll see.

9. Rainbows. Maybe because of all of the rain but I have never seen as many totally awesome, end-to-end rainbows as in the UK. And quite a few double rainbows as well.

10. Old houses and buildings of the many periods of architecture I enjoy: Georgian, Tudor half-timbered houses, cute thatched cottages. Also, all the many lovely village churches.

Southease Church, Kent, UK, January 2009. Near here is the part of the River Ouse in which Virginia Woolf drowned herself.

11. Chips! As in, for the Aussies, hot chips.

12. Green, green grass that is soft and not filled with biting ants, prickles and bindis (a horrid tiny plant in Aus that pierces the bottom of your bare feet and hooks through your skin; much of my childhood was spent painstakingly picking bindis out from my heel).

There’s probably more, but that’s what I can come up with at present.

Departures

Sunset over the Boating Lake at Southampton Common, June 2010

A couple of months ago, I handed in my notice at work. Now, it is a mere one month until I depart the shores of Great Britain to return “home” to Australia. I’ve been alluding, for a while, to this departure and it is now upon me.

I have been weighing up whether to tell this blog, My Blog, of my grand plans and decided that, yes, of course, I should tell you, my dear friends. Hopefully the random strangers won’t be that interested. And if they are, as long as they’re well-meaning, that’s okay. And if they’re sinister but don’t let on, that’s okay too.

My partner and I will be cycling over land (and, of necessity, sea, though we’ll use other means for that bit) from our hometown in the UK, Southampton, to our sort-of hometown in Australia, Brisbane. There is another blog, elsewhere, that will document this journey. If you’re interested, you can check it out here. Even if you’re not interested, you should just click over there once to find a photograph of me and of my partner.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit to having another blog, with my partner, that has documented all our travels while we’ve been over here. I call that one (in my head), Our Blog. You can find it here and be shocked that I’d been keeping this other blog from you for so long. Sorry. There were reasons and things but none of those reasons etc really seem very persuasive any more.

Maybe I’ll start using my partner’s name now that it’s just out there and all.

I will be keeping My Blog going and I will update it occasionally, probably even more sporadically than I have in the past. I really don’t know at this stage but I do know that I still want my own space on the web and that space is here. After all, there are bound to be stories that don’t quite fit on The Cycling Blog and maybe all the readers of that blog will get exasperated with my continual, “Ooh look! A pretty flower!” posts, whereas I know you guys love that. Weirdos.

I know I’ve been vacant for a while. Here’s to say that I will continue to be vacant (surprise!). This last month here is bound to be a bit crazy busy, and I’ll also be spending time birthing The Cycling Blog. Then after that, I’ll be dealing with life as a cycling traveller.

Thank you for reading and looking and commenting. This feels like goodbye, but it’s emphatically not. I’ll still be reading you!

Some signs of Spring

Happy New Lunar Year to my few faithful readers and to the lovely randoms who come by with search strings that make me laugh. Thank you.

I have recently espied two of my favourite signs of spring:

1.

Catkins! Nice, long, soft looking ones, too, and arrayed like they're eensy teensy grapes. No idea what tree they belong to. Maybe I'll look that up.

2.

Snowdrops! I saw one, then another one, then another bunch, then, hell! they were everywhere. These were the last I saw on our ramble on the day before Tet.

Oh, wait, make that 3 (but no picture):

My daffodils are pushing their way through the cold earth. Soon, oh-so soon, there will be crocuses and daffodils and tulips and then it will be time for me to attempt a pathetic summer wild-flower not-quite-meadow front yard.

We’ll be hanging around in this little house at least until October now, so I might even garden again, though last year was rather demoralising. Still, I have a whole lotta seeds, so I may as well just plant away and be a bit more sanguine about my (predicted) failures.