Goodbye 2020

 Well 2020 has been a strange year for everyone. 

Me and my motorhome

I have been very fortunate.

I even managed to get away in my motorhome for a few trips.
I visited some campsites in the south and south west researching for my next walk book. 

I went to 

• Devon
• Dorset
• East Sussex
• revisited Hampshire (New Forest) to check up on some facts.

Here are some photographs I took.
I hope they brighten your day.

DEVON
Discovering Dartmoor

Mountain Rescue Team out training

Widgery Cross on Brat Tor

DORSET
Chesil Beach

Boats in the Fleet

View across Fleet to Chesil Beach

EAST SUSSEX

The Weald

A cycle path through the trees

I'm looking at you
(even the trees have eyes)

HAMPSHIRE

New Forest

Some trees of the forest

Dartmoor pony on the moor

Christmas Cards

I  have been seeing posts that people are not sending cards this year but giving a donation to charity instead.
Really?

This year of all years, the sending of traditional greetings cards to loved ones near and far will surely mean so much more to say I am thinking of you, and wishing you peace, love and good health for the year to come, than a Facebook post which may or may not be read?

This may be the only contact you have with this person this year, Surely this is the time to make it count?

What about producers and publishers of cards? They're not all big companies, but often small designers who need our support to keep going, too.

You can purchase cards, which make a donation to charity, quite cheaply. The fact that you

• buy cards,
• write personal messages,
• send them.

Is very little effort for the response it will get

Or maybe you could hand deliver some of them on your daily walking exercise obviously taking care to socially distance and sanitise where you should.

If I know your address, I will be sending you a card if I do not know your home address, I will try to send a personal message; my love and blessings are unconditional.

If I offend then I apologise - that is not my intention.

If I choose to make a donation to charity that is personal - However, if I do so it will be as well as cards and not instead.

Pearl and I hope with all my heart we all stay safe and well, and that the next year will be better for us all and we can enjoy each others company again.

 

The Best Day

For me the most important day of the year is 21st or 22nd December
The Winter Solstice
(The shortest day)

This is the best day.
From now the days will get a little long.

It is such a significant day for me that I write about it most years.

I find the winter months, November, December and January difficult.
It is not the cold or wet.
It is the grey skies 

and the long dark nights.

When taking Pearl out for her afternoon jaunt my choices are limited;

• Take her out in the light at 3.30pm at the latest
• Take her out in the dark but somewhere easy to navigate.
• 
  

I am looking forward to spring

when Pearl and I will be able to resume our research 
for our second walk book
(Hopefully)

Read of the Month (Dec 2020)

This month's #ReadoftheMonth is for me a difficult read.
Nevertheless I feel it is an important for me to finish.

It gives a well researched factual account of an event my father was personally involved in;

The 1944 Warsaw Uprising.

And so the book is simply 

Warsaw 1944
(Hitler, Himmler and the Warsaw Uprising)
by

Alexandra Richie

My father did not speak in any detail about this period of his life.
He did on occasion mention it.
This was to explain his appearance;
scared face and hands due to burns.

Unfortunately I was only aware of the most rudimentary facts;

• the population of the city collaborated to fight against the Germans
• it was brutally repressed by the Nazis
• the Russians then invaded the city and established a communist regime

It was not until I was older and after my father had died that I learnt more.

This was in part due to Rita Cosby.

Her father too was a participant in the Warsaw uprising.
This was when he and my father met and subsequently became good friends.

So when Rita wrote a book about her father large chunks of it were about my father.

It is a very different book from the #ReadoftheMonth.
It is a personal emotional account 
as opposed to being
a carefully researched factual account.

This war in Eastern Europe, especially involving the Russians,
is little known in the UK.
It is rarely mentioned; certainly not the details.
Maybe now is the time to put the record straight.

This book is a start.

For me it is informative but poignant.
But a must read