Today I was thinking about my favourite places. I mean, other then my soft cosy bed in the morning.
I've told you before about Harlow Carr Garden near Harrogate, where the primulas spring up like pompoms over the stream and the scented garden makes you breathe so deeply you could pass out. Have I mentioned Alnmouth beach in Northumberland? I must have done. There's nothing there, that's what's so lovely about it. Just expanses of sand, sea and sky and the fresh clean air.
When we first moved to West Yorkshire I hated it. This time last year we were preparing to leave Mytholmroyd, and I left a part of my heart there. If you ever go there, stand on the bridge (the one by the church) look down, and see if there are any ducks. Say hello to St Michael's, and I can recommend Milly's for coffee and cake or lunch.
Finding beautiful places in North Yorkshire, well, that's shooting fish in a barrel. One of my favourites is Lastingham, which looks as if it's in a fairy tale but it isn't. It's grounded in solid realities. If you visit the church you can go down to the plain little Saxon crypt where the sense of holiness stuns and overawes you.
The Scottish Highlands are sort of shooting fish in a barrel too, but it's disrespectful to talk about shooting fish in Scotland. Loch Goil, where the light on the mountains changes all the time. Kingussie, where the red squirrels are as common as sparrows. Galloway. Iona with its white sand and clear waters.
In Wales, Snowdonia, and a particular favourite view that looks down over Conwy castle.
And my own back garden. Sometimes it's easy to be thankful.
What are your favourite places?
3 comments:
There are so many to choose from...favorite places, my goodness...well, for starters, on a small scale, one favorite place is a chair in my garden. Any chair will do as long as it's early on a quiet summer morning. Beautiful yellow slanting sunlight and birds twittering, hot coffee and a book...heaven on earth. On the big scale? A beach on the Oregon coast or the Washington coast, a rough rugged one where you can't swim but can walk for miles...old villages in the UK...the countryside of Vermont.
I got home last night after a long journey, looked at my little garden, and wondered if there is anywhere better than this. Any particular villages in the UK?
I think my archetype of a village is probably something straight out of Masterpiece Theatre...alas I haven't tromped enough around the UK to pick out a particular village. There, now I have an excellent reason to pick up a book at the library about English country villages and peruse it. I have relatives in the Maldon area so Essex is a good start! (Having read your Cardiff post, yes, I can imagine you'd find that there's no place like home.)
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