Our Halcyon Summer Days

5 years ago I arrived in Paris partaking in a 2 year European experiment. Bidding adieu to friends and family, exhausted from containerizing our home of 25 years, giddy with the excitement of new horizons and butterflies in my stomach starting a new career - Marketing, new country - France and language - French.

That 2 year experiment continued to 3, then 4, then 5 years. New country, new rules and still we continue to leaf through the travel guide of life looking forward, never backward to other opportunities.

The 40 year experiment of our marriage reached a milestone July 2, looking forward never backward. Well thought out choices continue to give us a good return on investment.

Fiornando's World Tour

Fernando and Fiorenza, the couple we lovingly call Fiornandos, enjoyed an extended tour in Italy (some 10 weeks) with a stop in France before crossing the pond to spend time with us during the Queen's Jubilee. What a nice surprise when her majesty showed up with Fergus or is it Muick, in Northern Wales where we spent 4 days hiking the Welsh countryside.

Freewheeling it we had a nice surprise to stumble on the World Book Festival in Hay-on-Wye. The festival has been described as the Woodstock of the Mind.

Youssef had a chance to meet Karen Armstrong, an author that he has read and enjoys.

Taking the diesel train part way up Mount Snowdon, Wale's highest peak at 3,650 feet in Snowdonia National Park, rewarded us with vistas, animals and the packed "cinio"* prepared by the B&B for our "heic"*.

Slate commands the vistas here where you can see the stone poking out of every river bed, landscape, home detail, quarries visible during our hikes. Wales has the world's largest slate mines.

Our perfect B&B Sygun Fawr was tucked away on the outskirts of Beddgelert where one of the most famous Welsh Princes, Llwelyn the Great, lived. Not in our B&B but close by.

On September 1949 a 5 pound meteor hit the Prince Llewelyn Hotel about 3 a.m. falling through the roof to the bedroom below. The hotel proprietor, answered an ad in a local newspaper asking for any recovered fragments of the meteorite, sold half to the British Museum and the other half to Durham University.

Beddgelert was so perfect it comes with its own legend. Beddgelert translates to Gelert's grave.

Prince Llywelyn left his trusted Irish Wolf Hound, Gelert, to guard his infant son while he went hunting. Returning to his castle and seeing Gelert with blood on his face and no baby in sight, Llywelyn assumed Gelert killed his son and in a rage he killed his beloved dog, Gelert.

Hearing the baby's cry he discovered a dead wolf nearby and realized loyal Gelert had killed the wolf protecting the baby. The Prince never smiled again.

Gelert's grave and Gelert.

The Welsh legend is meant to teach us patience and managing grief. Something the hard working Welsh learned from years of hard scrap subsistence in the often unforgiving landscape.

While Wales is known for coal mining, there is also copper, gold, lead and silver. We visited a copper mine and I couldn't imagine the sacrifices of earning a living in cramped, dusty, oxygen deprived, dark areas playing with dynamite.

Hard heads wearing hard hats.

Welsh slate has been mined for 1,800 years and is considered some of the world's best slate. Slate is a constant in the landscape as every step and boulder, stream bed, floor, bench, coffee coaster, roof, chimney, countertop reveals the mineral that gave so much of Wales its wealth.

Caernarfon Castle where Prince Charles received his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969. Wales has the most castles per capita.

Bodnant Gardens resplendent with the sunny yellow laburnum arch was a fantastic discovery lasting only 3 weeks every year.

The remainder of the Fiornando's Welcome to UK Tour wrapped it up with visits to Bath, Stonehenge, Cotswolds, Wells, Stourhead to name a few hot spots of Somerset and Wiltshire Counties, the surrounding villages and estates of note. Plus the local Bath City Farms where my very fat Shetland ponies reside and Fiorenza claims has the best espresso, ever.

I recently came across this Welsh quote, "I'll do it now, in a minute."

Fernando's spin class and Wendy's swing class. Family is the bread of life and friends are the cheese.

Miss Shirley.

Shirley, our friend of 25 years via the Blanchard experiment, dragged her full suitcases across the ocean to see what mischief she could stir up with her addictive laugh, infectious spirit and trunk full of scarves.

Get the party started.

London walks and art appreciation. Jeff Koontz auctioned off his Magenta Balloon Monkey sculpture for $12.4 million to provide humanitarian aid for Ukraine, in particular, prosthetics and rehabilitation of Ukrainians wounded in the war.

Wimbledon. Swinging on a tennis ball, strawberries and cream and the chance to see the world's best hit a few balls.

Games to watch, people to admire and a glimpse of Nadal as he heads to center court.

Bishops Walk at Wells Cathedral. Artistic placements of art and sculptures adding to a gorgeous garden and natural spring.

We tapped into our inner angels.

Warrior Women with knives and spears.

Yawning and Laughter are 2 things that we do when someone else does it, even if we don't know them. The emotional connection is a sign of empathy showing you are attuned to their feelings, even fatigue. We weren't yawning with our June visitors but definitely laughing.

Blackberries Bite.

Blackberries are dangerous. Their self preservation almost convinces you that they are consuming you, not the reverse.

Hanging over a fence with one foot planted in the brambles and stinging nettles, arms scratched, a blackberry stained hand that looked like I had lost the battle, blackberries glistening in my basket, I was reminded of my Mom’s favorite secret pastime-berry hunting.

When Stella had the rare unicorn opportunity for "me time" with her farm obligations and 5 children, she would put on a hat, grab a bucket to head to her secret berry patches. Sometimes a neighbor, Hilma, Irene or Vivian, would join her for a stealth picking mission. Laden with berries and plans for jam, jarring and crumble, not willing to disclose her choice locations, berry adventures would reset her day.

It made total sense to me that I would have fallen in love with the chase of nature's jewels. I am my mother’s daughter.

Early spring brings wild garlic gathering, then elderflower and now blackberries. The bushes are heaving with berries this year and you can almost hear them pop as they ripen earlier than normal to a bursting black and blue. Days are joyful when in pursuit of nature's gifts.

Seen and sign of the times.

Most of all, take time to smell the flowers...

*Welsh words: heic = hike, cinio = lunch