..." and all the chestnut spires are out ..."

Terrace BEFORE I left.

Lovely to see the chestnut trees in the Burg in flower on my return; blooming good!. And, days later, saw many, many more chestnut spires in majestic trees in the Station area. Remembering the line above in the blog title, from the dimly-remembered 'At Kew, at Kew in lilac time' [Alfred Noyes] I am searching for sweet lilacs too and saw several, again in the station area. Do hope to find some lilac to buy on the Wednesday market; it reminds me of a lovely elderly woman in Wye who used to give me a bunch of lilac blooms from her garden every year. The trees in my own square, with foliage just peeping before I left, are now in young green leaf hiding part of the buildings opposite and shading the benches below their thick canopy. I have spent hours on my terrace today, rescuing pots from plants which died in my absence, sweeping up the carpet of decayed leaves and dead flowers. Either frost or drought have killed two hortensia, one hellebore and caused a litter of dead, half-open flowers from the camellia. Is there ever a right time to leave potted plants for several weeks?  I do hear there was much cold and snow during April and insufficient rain. Small comfort!

Part of the back garden
indicating the hilliness of
Emerald Hills.
My daily walk was Slow.

However, SO enjoyed my stay with elder daughter and her little family in Emerald Hills, Redwood City, California but great to be back in beautiful Brugge. After the first day back which passed in a zombie-like state as I washed and ironed my way back to Belgium time, came a few days with a dear old friend from New Hampshire here to stay as part of his annual pilgrimage to the UK and Germany and now, Brugge. He is, at nearly 90, a role model par excellence as he travels determinedly across the world; he left yesterday on a six hour train trip to Karlsruhe to see other old friends before a flight to Britain to catch up with family and friends. Ageing gracefully while continuing to enjoy Life is, I suppose, Not Giving In to the diminishing of stamina, strength and mental agility. A sunny disposition and an inquisitive nature also help! Whatever it is, he has it in spades!

I have lots of memories of my Californian stay; some unsurprising. No Trump fans; lovely to enjoy

Genevieve setting up a lemonade-stand to raise money for a
dog charity in San Francisco. Evidence of a philanthropic
spirit which emerges now and then.

‘family time’; middle class courtesy is the same the world over. Surprises included the discovery that my six year old grand-daughter can play, solo, SO long with her Barbie dolls and even longer with her multiplicity of Lego kits which now contain myriad tiny pieces, figures, animals and not only the countless bricks which slot together, familiar from the sixties and seventies of my children’s childhoods. The sheer size of homes in the area where I stayed, also amazed so that my own quite large flat struck me as small and overcrowded when I eventually returned home. The considerable difficulty

A bedroom!

of going anywhere without a car was experienced anew; public transport, when available, is only O.K. For me, Uber was generally all that was available though on my penultimate day out to the de Young Museum situated towards the Ocean end of San Francisco, after going there by Uber [35 dollars; astonishingly cheap!], I decided to return by public transport. Bus from quite near the de Young across town; Bart to one end of the small network to Millbrae; fruitless search for bus, followed by advice to take the Cal train from Millbrae to San Carlos where son-in-law met me for the ten minute drive home. In its entirety [with much waiting around] my homeward journey took three and a half hours! The Uber to go there took around 25 minutes! I was tempted, after descending from the Bart, to take an Uber but was outraged to discover the price for a much shorter journey than earlier in the day, would have been 81 dollars! Uber is apparently time-sensitive and I had staggered into commuter-time. Think that is capitalism at work! I wondered aloud why the Bart train and the Caltrain systems weren’t unified and indeed, why there was no extensive train network; the unions stopped it apparently, a sixteen year old fellow traveller told me wearily as he despaired of the U.S. public transport system.



The former Post Office is the redbrick building
to the right. Built in 1924, it was not only beautiful but
conveniently in the Markt i.e. the centre of town.

I remembered that today as I walked out to try to catch the main Post Office before it closed; the P.O. was moved last year from the Markt [five minutes walk away] to the far end of Smedenstraat [at least 25/30 minutes walk] so a bus was essential down to ‘t Zand. I hurried towards Jan Van Eyckplein, waving desperately at the driver of the Number 14 as it overtook me. Miraculously, he waited and in about ten minutes I had arrived at ‘t Zand with the Pinkster [Whitsun] Fair in full swing perched along the edges of the huge square, itself still resembling a mini-Somme from the make-over still in progress after months. Within minutes I was entering the Post Office with ten whole minutes before closure to spare. I am not sure if Bruggelingen actually appreciate fully the little miracle that is the bus service here but I do. And even more so after California! And the drivers are incredibly kind and patient too, explaining to, and advising, countless tourists; accommodating wheelchair users; threading through frequent road-works and taking different routes as yet another straat is suddenly closed to through traffic.