Look at the sea of Surriento,
what a treasure it is!
Even who has travelled all over the world,
he has never seen a sea like this one.
Look at these mermaids
that stare, amazed, at you,
that love you so much.
They would like to kiss you,
And you say: “I am leaving, goodbye.”
You go away from my heart,
away from the land of love,
And you have the heart not to come back.
But please do not go away,
do not give me this pain.
Come back to Surriento,
let me live!

We did something romantic for our Ruby Wedding in 2007….all lovers should try to see Sorrento at least once. It’s a fascinating town in itself and there is so much to explore in the surrounding area –a great place to visit…

….you can easily reach the Isle of Capri…

….Naples…

With the warning shadow of Vesuvius always there in the background…

Alternatively you can look down on Naples from the volcano’s summit…

Then look into the crater…

Pompeii reminds us of the power of Vesuvius..look what happened to this Roman…

Perhaps he’d been walking along this street when he was caught by the eruption…

Nearby Herculaneum is even better preserved….

Of course from Sorrento you can also travel south to Amalfi..

Then back to Sorrento to just sit and watch the seagulls…maybe even catch the eye of a mermaid…

Snowdrops….the sign that spring is on it’s way. There were huge clumps of them growing on the grass verges in Somerset at the weekend and in our son’s garden…..

Winter fields outside our son’s west country cottage where we all went for Christmas…

Inside looking out…..

The tree….

The gang….our grandchildren…

Harry’s big parcel…..what can it be?

Harry’s older cousin Oliver got as much pleasure from helping to give the present as he did from receiving his own. As for Harry – the monkey never left his side….

Which, I suppose, is part of what Christmas is about…..

h/t to our daughter Helena (Harry’s mum) who took the pics & Vicky our daughter in law (Oliver’s mum) who was our hostess…

Murphy lives here.

He is 13 years old, was a rescue cat whose first home was obviously a living hell so he never has been particularly cuddly. Our grandson Oliver once summed him up perfectly as “the grumpiest cat in town.”

He has been hit by a lorry, fallen out of trees and accidentally clunked by a brick. In his younger days he saw off legions of other cats who dared to trespass into his territory plus one or two dogs. Now, however, apart from catching the odd rabbit just to prove he can still do it when push comes to shove, he prefers to take it easy, especially in front of a new log burner that, in the nature of cats, he assumes has been provided purely for his own comfort.

So, with all those crises ripping across the globe, Murphy just switches them out of his mind….maybe there’s a lesson to be learned here…..

Usually we post pictures of England in the sun but, of course, we often have days that are damp and dull – like this one.

Every Wednesday morning, whatever the weather, whatever the season, we, plus an assortment of other aged folk, do a 5 or 6 mile walk in the countryside of Sussex or Surrey – then end up in a pub for a beer and a sandwich.

So here we are, at the top of a very steep hill, wet, muddy but unbowed…

Mrs P in the middle in red, yours truly next to the guy in the hat next to the lady with the umbrella….

Excelsior!!!

We did a circular 5 mile walk from The Parrot Inn, Forest Green. On the return leg we walked out of a wood and came to the Buttercup Field.

It was one of those moments when you just wanted time to stand still. The peaceful tranquillity of the place drained away each ounce of stress, calmed every nerve.

We wanted to be there forever…

But of course you can never stop the clock so eventually we moved on but not until The Lovely Mrs P had captured the scene on her Blackberry.

Then, back at the pub we raised our glasses and toasted the Buttercup Field with a pint of Hobgoblin

That’s right – I married a Cornish girl nearly 44 years ago and we still often go back there.

This is the cottage where we stayed in Fowey a few weeks ago.

Conveniently it’s right next door to a pub – “The Safe Harbour”

The Lovely Mrs P was born and bred in Fowey and when this Londoner went down there do do some courting (strange, old fashioned word….) we used to go down to that pub for a quiet drink and a little privacy

Opposite the pub is the letter box…

…and almost opposite the cottage is the alleyway that leads to the church and the harbour.

The church, St Fimbarrus, is where we got married in 1967…

….and we posed before it 40 years later…

Further down the town you come to the mouth of the River Fowey, Fowey Harbour, which is a busy little port for ships large and small.

“There is nothing- absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

Fowey also has a fully furnished bus stop…

While further inland are the (rather modest) Golitha Falls where the infant River Fowey tumbles down from the edge of Bodmin Moor

One day we went further down to the western tip of Cornwall where, every twenty miles or so, there is a delightful sandy cove with a beautiful natural beach set against rugged cliffs. Once there we followed the cliff path to Pedn Vounder Beach and harvested mussels for our supper from the isolated rock standing up from the sand

The cliffs look as if they have been hewn by giants to carve out forbidding ramparts

Beneath the rocks there sits a woman of mysterious beauty – does she seek to capture my heart?

She has no need for it is the Cornish girl who captured my heart many years ago…

Meanwhile the eternal sea washes against the sand, whispering the memories of people like us long departed and yet to come…