After a very wet February with some snow to brighten the fells, March arrives with warm Sun and longer days, leading to decisive action for a Spring adventure ... Easter ferry to Brittany, a few days with younger sister, then a wander south and west ...
All that necessary planning, not including any restricting return date, leaves a month to visit younger daughter yesterday ... a very busy sunny Sunday at the coast, virus panic notwithstanding ... Geordies possibly playing up to their stereotypical insousiance ... eateries thronging with people and space finally found at the Buddha Lounge for good food and ambience, though it turns out the Buddha images are only for style and without any overt spiritual message ... maybe conversion by stealth, since the various forms generally invoke peace ... indeed this once Christian country almost certainly exhibits more images of the enlightened one than his suffering counterpart ... though since the core messages are the same it may be a sign that folks prefer peace over pain, at least in their gardens or on their mantelpieces ... other religions eschew such imagery as blasphemous ... organised religion mostly tailing off in wealthier nations as mammon mostly meets material needs ... existential angst lingers, of course, and this secular state has many wild and wonderful forms with which to shape spiritual exploration, often with costumes and stories ready made, plus a fellowship to confirm our common views ... and gurus ...
A short road trip to visit absconding elder daughter and dear friend, both recently relocated to different parts of the Scottish Borders, some days woodland working at Land of Joy, and a couple more minibus trips with any local elders willing to step outside and risk the new flu ... a worldwide event apparently about to trigger the overdue economic recession and minds being prepared to accept behaviour changes otherwise unthinkable ... in Lombardy several million residents are put in quarantine, though wandering tourists are not ... and they, presumably, will require all the services of the tourist economy ... some bizarre contradictions arise as authorities struggle to contain the epidemic ... meanwhile, friends with pre-existing medical conditions or elderly are not reassured that folks with robust immune systems will be fine ... neighbours having recently returned from Malaysia advised to self-isolate by their employers, less through concern for employees than fear of litigation in case of culpable infection of customers ... cashless economy promoted in the name of contaminated coins and notes with a huge benefit to governments wishing to clean up the black economy and increase the tax take ... cynics might suggest governments at international scale are conditioning folks to follow orders in the name of public safety ... conspiracy theorists go further, bio-terrorism, state sponsored or otherwise, suggested ... and of course conspiracy theories are not false by definition ...
In the woods wild garlic provides the first forage food of the year, just as the last of Autumn's blackberries are eaten ... wonderful Sun on the fells and briefly a rainbow before return to the street for some conversation ... whilst a message of encouragement arrives for the book of the blog ... whether the inspiration appears in the month left for such an endeavour. .. let's see!
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