Lancaster

I arrived back in grey Lancashire yesterday afternoon. Sim picked me up from John Lennon airport  and after a quick drive up the M6 there I was in Lancaster. Tired after working in the Algarve sun on Andy's acre of land. clearing the brush and moving concrete blocks from one space to another. Loads of wildlife inside the holes in the blocks. A snake we thought a viper, a dozen lizards of various kinds, a wasp nest and insects aplenty. Spring happening. Sporting Clube de Portugal baseball cap necessary for protection against the sun and I still caught it on my face. Nice. Not the hat-I'd borrowed that.


A different season here. Cool and cloudy. The people grim looking. The big difference I notice every time is the predominance of the written word everywhere you look. Public information-or misinformation. Do this-don't do that. Labels complex and ubiquitous. Marketing everywhere you look. From the plane onwards. Boundless oceans of the written word. Is this what sophistication means? 

But then the upside. Straight down to Lancaster's public library this morning and I came away with a pile of reading material for the next week. And useful stuff too. All of it related to the upcoming work. And that, after all, is why I'm here. Time for action and putting the sunglasses away for a while. Sadly, no vipers or 'vespas' to fascinate. Mother's garden to look after and that will have to do. All in good time. We need, at times, to step back to look forward.