September

Back on track, I hope.  This has been, reportedly, the worst British summer on record.  It is also the summer I had  family visitors.  They will never again believe that summer here can be glorious, hot, and good for the beach.    We were lucky, though.  The trip to Northumberland with Lora was often sunny, and if the trip to the Jurassic Coast with M&N’s was not what I had hoped, there were lots of  good times and a little sunshine.  Everyone seems to like it here,  despite the weather, as I do myself.  The thing about British weather is that, as they say, there is so much of it.  And it makes you aware of the elements as nowhere else I have ever lived.  We are on small islands buffeted by Atlantic storms from the West and the North Sea from the, well, north.  And east.  So you know your place in the scheme of things, (tiny), and make the best of it. 

I don’t really want this blog to be a travelogue, but I will say Wales was wonderful. We spent a few days on the Gower Peninsula and Pembrokeshire, the south western corner of Wales.  Although there were floods and torrential rains, once again we found the cracks in the clouds where it was dry and sunny.  The photo albums will give you an idea of the wild beauty of the coast, and maybe even the magical nature of the place, curling around with the mist.

With September, life has taken off again, just as every school year of my life.  I am seriously trying to integrate myself in the village, now.  I went to a painting class with other women from the village, with an Indian man, who also lives in Shere,  as a teacher.   Today I will start a Pilates class with the best physiotherapist in the village, again with other women who live here, too.    We have some dinner parties planned, and are invited to some, we are interviewing people to build us a small studio in the garden, I am re-organizing the house, and planning a trip to the states.  Whew.  Oh, and the election – well, the British are as interested in the election as Americans.  As one journalist put it, every American is voting for two people, themselves, and a European.
The US president is still the most powerful person in the world.  So we need to be responsible about our voting, and recognize that the eyes of the world are focused on us.