Tuesday, 28th.
I guess because we haven’t had much equipment out, or perhaps because we’ve
done it a good few times now, packing up and the final cleaning was a rather
leisurely affair – although it did mean that we left at about 14.00.
The toboggan served its role in transporting our luggage to the car; there’s still a lot of snow, despite the increasing thaw.
I took a tumble – tripped over a lump of frozen snow and fell to hands and knees before rolling to the left and jarring chest and back. A bit shaken but nothing serious….
This has been a perfect rest; it’s three years since we left in a rush,
promising to be back and, although we came twice last year, they were somehow
unsatisfactory visits. The full summer
in particular, fraught as it was with issues surrounding Ali’s catching Covid
at the outset, the car and the awful internet, was particularly dampening. And then the Autumn seemed more and more
intense at home. Here. At last, I think
we have begun to learn to let go.
This trip was just – peaceful. In the UK our lives are always shared; Olena and Adam, church. Here we were “just us” for the majority of the time. The involvement of friends was “external”, welcome and a delight but not really impacting onto our space in the same way. Many evenings we just sat and watched / listened to our particular YouTube preferences, but the silence and the downright coziness of the place seeps in nevertheless. Great trip. We feel ten years younger!
Down to Montreal where Wanda had laid on a high tea worthy of Fortnum’s! Such kindness.
And then, whisked us to the airport. Easy check in, mediocre supper (I think they’d run out of ingredients), a kindly people-carrier driver took pity on us and took us to the gate (I think we were looking a bit in need of transport!) and then fancy ‘early boarding’ our rather sparsely-populated flight.
No supper (just
salad and desert), no alcohol (two bottles provided but neither drunk), eye
mask on and I slept – with hourly wakings to change position) for four of the
five and a half hours. Ali slept far
less I’m afraid.
Hannah, our delightful stewardess (from Yatton, would you believe, a village 3
miles from us!!) took pity on us after the awful pizza-like “breakfast” and
brought us more coffee and shortbreads.
Perfect.
The wait for our luggage was interminable but we caught the coach with no
problem and are now home, with daffodils and even the magnolia at number 5 in
flower. We have
slept, Olena has cooked for us; I remembered to take my methotrexate.
Palm Sunday follows, then Holy Week. Let’s hope that that sense of calm follows us. I have a week’s retreat soon after that, Perhaps I’ll pick up the blog for that, perhaps not.
Maybe I’ll wait until HF in Provence in May, or perhaps even until Canada again
in July; that’s promising to be a very good story!
