Just as
the Spring is settling sunnily in, I am going tomorrow [April 6th[ to
visit my eldest and her family in California. In Silicon Valley to be
precise, to see them and their new house in Emerald Hills which
sounds beautiful! And to spend time with six year old Genevieve who Likes To Be In Charge and who, indeed, may offer more sense than the present occupant of the White House.
 |
| Sunday's walk, past the windmills, with tree-sentinels still ungreened, biding their time for May to arrive. |
I was
walking home a few days ago after collecting an item from Mustafa,
the Afghan who has a shop on Gentpoortstraat offering to do alterations and
remodelling of clothes. He is from a family of tailors in Kabul and
has a beautiful wife and family. As I strolled through Astridpark, I
could see already that some trees were beginning to awaken and I was
struck with the sight of groups of people already sitting on the
grass enjoying the weak sunshine. It is, I have learned, one of the
first signs of Spring in Brugge. Couples and families luxuriating on
the grass while leaves are bursting into early bud above them. That
and the ever-earlier dawn chorus; now tuning up as I leave the flat
at 6.05 for the early swim. As Chaucer has it, “And after winter
folweth grene May.” For, by the time I return home from America at
the beginning of May, all will be serenely warm and light at both
ends of the day and May, that loveliest of months, will be mine to
savour. Indeed, all things seem possible in honey-sweet May and the grass in Astridpark looks greener than grene in my photo.
Short note this time; still check-in to do and final packing to complete. Bye bye beautiful terrace for now, with its camellia in bloom and multi-coloured polyanthuses offering their petals to the sun. And the bright pink rhododendron bursting forth. Is this the right time to go away, even to somewhere as beautiful as California?!
