The view from my office window
I’m writing to you from the Isle of Man. 54.2361° N, 4.5481° W and yes, it’s pretty much in the middle of the Irish Sea.
I can see the train from my home office window as it appears and disappears behind the trees at the end of the fields. I am always charmed by it and recommend a train ride to anyone visiting the island. It slows you down and gives you the opportunity to see the countryside from a different perspective. I can see the chickens strutting their stuff and two moorhens which seem to have lost their identity and now hang out with the chickens instead of the other waterfowl on the pond.
The winds have settled down and the sun is trying hard to improve the milky light. This is the calmest and warmest November I can remember in the 15 years we have been living here. In past years, September/October was our sailing holiday time and when we returned to the island the leaves had dropped along with the temperature. This year, the leaves have fallen but the temps are a lot milder and it’s been far less windy.
I had tea with some fellow South Africans on Friday afternoon and came away revitalised with their energy. Juliet is experimenting with making soaps and lotions using the honey from Johnnie’s bees and we added our ideas to the melting pot of design and presentation. Women are so innovative and encouraging of one another. The samples we came home with were are very good indeed.
Seeing Juliet again has spurred me onto contacting my old school friends. We reconnected at a school reunion in April, 40 years after we matriculated. It was a riotous get together with the most popular game being ‘Who on earth is that?’! I went to school at Lowveld High in Nelspruit (near the Kruger Park) and I don’t want to lose touch again. We are indeed the scatterlings of Africa with so many of us living in places far distant from what we knew as the Transvaal Lowveld - ‘Jock of the Bushveld country’.
We were so blessed to witness the largest supermoon in history last night, which just managed to peak through the clouds, that were trying to keep it a secret!
The last time the moon was this close to the earth was 68 years ago and the next perigee-syzygy (superclose) supermoon will take place on 25th November 2034. I’m glad we witnessed it last night, just to be on the safe side...
