Soon heading south.

Towards Sanary Sur Mer via Roscoff on Brittany Ferries. Later we plan to go to Chioggia, near Venice then back to Var in the French Alps.

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All bookings made, insurance and paperwork double checked. M.O.T. sorted and a brake light replaced. Replaced the Lodoxol gear oil and differential oil and replaced standard drain plugs with magnetic ones . Bled the brakes and engine oil changed. Renewed the air filter.

Helen refuses to take the tent, but accommodation is now booked.  I like to drive with a flexible itinerary, but Helen prefers to know the precise route and sleep in a comfortable bed.

Now Sophie is a mum and Helen and me the proud grandpa and ma.  Leon Joseph is doing well, Sophia and Max even manage to get some sleep.

Spring has sprung beautifully on our doorstep and this primrose wood is just ten minutes away. I begin to wonder if we might not be quite mad to dash away, when all seems so rosy in our little garden.

An earlier post here includes a piece by Alan Bennett who depicted Primrose Hill. He does not have the primrose all to himself though. Devon is awash with primroses at present, but these belong to Lord Courtenay whose ancestry includes pirates of the pillaging kind (privateers).  I am afraid my ancestry includes links to a lesser variety of high seas bravado, smugglers of  the south west approaches; whereas the Courtenays had their coffers royally rewarded, my ancestors' allegiance lay towards the church which bled the common man. The Tapper name figures on a brass band around a pillar of Dawlish Parish Church and in the lead of its tower roof. 

Now where was I ?  ... Oh yes;  rambling on about primroses!

Fox Tor Cafe for lunch again

Hazy sun and a chill wind across the moor today as Helen and me motored to Princetown for lunch then a walk close by Sharp Tor. 

Skylarks in full song and widespread as were patches of burnt heather and gorse from recent swailing.

Spotted a large Adder on the path before stepping any closer to it. Beautifully marked in light grey tones, perfectly matching the granite boulders nearby.

Morgan parked off road

Swailing

Sharp Tor

Adder sunbathing

Environment Agency and the Somerset Vole

£2454 is the cost of saving each one of 55 water voles on the Somerset Levels. A grand total of £135,000.
Now I love to see wildlife thriving but our cat called Jack, brought home to our garden, one similar little creatures in a very lifeless state and showing signs of recent trauma. A common shrew that is not valued quite so highly.

The Common Shrew

Jack has a number of kills to his name including half a dozen mice, one wren, two pigeon, one blackbird, one starling and four sparrows and a cock pheasant. He is also quite adept at striking flying insects out of the air and performing acrobatic feats of a spirited nature, despite weighing in at a portly 2 kilos.
I should like to know if the Environment Agency has any schemes I should be aware of, to preserve the lesser known little creatures Jack might find by the Exe Estuary.

Peace of Mind

Depression, mental health and the erosion of our human spirit is something I have given thought to.  Helpful suggestions here include some that allowed me to shrug off the weight of  such a transient interval.

Sleepwalking into a state of low spirits may give no forewarning until a seemingly insignificant event tips the scales.  One newspaper report of a young girl on holiday locally (unknown), who tragically lost her life to an ingestion of infected material while playing on the beach. There were other worries also occupying my thoughts, but this final matter was that straw that tipped me into a spiral of low spirit and consultations with my GP and prescriptions for anti-depressants. It was some little time later that I sank lower and chose to actually take the medication. A choice not to be taken lightly. Medication that renders one into a state of fuzzy, detached thinking and sluggish behaviour, with me sitting in a comatosed state for days, weeks and many months, and undergoing phases of talking therapy. Sometimes helpful - sometimes not. Not all doctors or therapists have a grasp of what to do for a particular patient. I quite understand that this is more likely to be due to the vastly wide differences to be found in the circumstances and mind state of a patient and the great variability of therapies and drugs available to the helper. What works for one may be counter productive for another and so on.
Much of my state of mind came about as a result of grappling with, or failing to grapple with, financial issues to do with what we all have to deal with; but in my case it became an all consuming obsession with the minutiae of pennies and planning for a comfortable retirement. A mid-life crisis is a vague description, but hardly gives a clue to the reasons or the cures that eventually lead back on the road to peace of mind.
A remark that helped me greatly was made by one GP who said; whether I chose to do nothing all day, made little difference . Circumstance change around us and the environment we live in alters, whatever else we do.

I could choose to do nothing to change my lot or act upon my thinking. Outside changes will eventually do this for us, albeit slowly and haphazardly.

This thought woke me up to the futility of my state of mind and led to decisions that helped me recover more quickly than if he had said nothing. A seemingly simple, but nonetheless quite important observation on his part.

Another GP advised me not to discuss such issues with friends!  Wrong advice as far as I was concerned.  I found those friends and relations I talked to, supportive and extremely helpful.
Most therapists are very reluctant to offer solutions to life problems in case their suggestions lead to negative or disastrous actions that they might, themselves, be later blamed for.
So what else helps?   Physical exercise, walking, travel, new horizons, escaping one environment and moving to another, engaging with animals, particularly a pet dog, a cat, or a horse, visiting distant relatives, spectacles of nature, and grand landscapes of the wonderful kind that are here to be enjoyed by us all.

Listen for the skylark in the heavens

The world is so incredibly varied and people themselves also incredibly various. Today as always I enjoy just; "people watching".  A crowded street can be as fascinating as a deserted remote shoreline of a Scottish loch.  Both are glorious in ways that need no explanation.

 

Easter Monday

Happy Family get-together and plenty of delicacies today then a warm sunny dash off to Plymouth.
The A38 road surface has been repaired and those awful trammelled sections eliminated.

A tall ship at Cap'n Jaspers and a walk along the Hoe was enjoyed by big crowds this bank holiday.

Exminster Marshes near where I live

Much of the RSPB reserve now seems to be under a permanent state of flood.
Easter has brought with it some milder weather and the migratory birds are arriving.
Osprey, Swallows, and Martin but here I enjoy the close up encounter with a cob Swan that seems to have lost its mate.