Edinburgh: Holiday or Home?

March 7, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

We have visited Edinburgh many times since Eldest Son (ES) moved there and increasingly frequently since he and his wife had a son there. We have fallen in love with the city.

I have always liked city living. Jane is more of a rural lover. I too have really enjoyed my several years of retirement in a comfortable home, out in the beautiful countryside of Gloucestershire and our lovely community in the Stroud valleys. But now we are beginning to recognise that our current levels of mobility won’t be forever and that we need to plan for that. Living in a town or, better, a city like Edinburgh, might be the solution.

*^{Classic Edinburgh View – The Castle From Princes Street}*

We have spent a lot of time debating the options and it is a privilege to have those choices. To help in the decision making, we spent a month from late January in Edinburgh. All our previous visits to Edinburgh had been little more than long weekends. This time we wanted to see how it felt to get a more profound and thorough feel for the city, and to think about how it might be to live in it for at least a substantial part of the year.

The month we spent in Edinburgh deepened our regard for it. We managed to get to the cinema once and the pub a few times, but barely scratched the surface of the nightlife that is available. However, I could already see that there is a lot going on and that I could resume my love of small-venue music gigs that absorbed me in the latter years of my working life in London. It seemed clear too from a couple of visits to the local pub with ES’s parent-in-law, that making new friends wouldn’t be too hard.

In the event, I don’t think that we are closer to a decision about where our next couple of steps will take us in terms of where we live. We continue to toss ideas around.

I think that we have concluded two things. First, that the model of hiring a flat in central Edinburgh for a month is one that we want to repeat (although the flat we stayed in this time was really good and set a high expectation for next time); we had a great time and I think the arrangements were helpful to ES and his wife without putting so much pressure on them to provide the hospitality.

The second thing is that we want to keep a base in the Gloucestershire area so that we can stay close to Jane’s roots and the ones I have put down since we moved here, and be close to Middle Son, his fiancé and Second Grandchild. Now we need to work out what that means. Fortunately, we don’t have to make a decision immediately; to an extent, we can see how events unfold and influence things – goodness knows that recent world events have shown how quickly perspectives can change.

^{Our Rural Idyll – Different From Edinburgh But Not Too Shabby As A Location}

Regardless of all that, our winter Edinburgh month left us with a huge number of happy memories.

Best Solo Moments for me during this visit were those alone with First Grandchild (FG). One was when Jane was rather immobilised with her broken arm, and I took FG out to a local park. He played wonderfully considerately in the playground and then we went on a long walk during which we chatted incessantly. I felt so proud of him .

^{Me: “It’s Like A Trampoline”
FG: “It Is a Trampoline Grandad!”}

The other, was when I was babysitting and putting FG to bed but couldn’t work out how to zip up his sleeping bag. FG (like me) is a person who likes routine and I could see that he was struggling to manage his emotions about my zip incompetence and the impending break in routine. Just as he visibly got control of those emotions, I finally worked out that the zip went downwards not upwards and we could celebrate together.

Best Moment with Jane was probably one of her earliest ventures out after her accident when we went to The Port of Leith Distillery for lunch. This a building that stands alone amid demotion works On one side it overlooks the port and the Firth of Forth and, on the other, The Royal Yacht Britannia and the adjacent, drastic demolition and renovation of a chunk of Leith. The views were great, the demolition work was entertaining to watch (for me, anyway), lunch and drinks were nice and going to Leith on the tram felt like a very positive step in Jane’s recovery.

*^{Port Of Leith Distillery: The View From Our Table, The Building And The Inside}*

Best Pub was Teuchters Bar & Bunker just over the road from where we were staying. It has a great range of local beers, really good comfort food and a very convivial atmosphere. ES’s father-in-law took me there a couple of times and he seemed to know everyone which led me to…..

….Most Embarrassing Moment was in Teuchters when, leaning back to meet yet another new acquaintance standing just behind me, I slid off my chair onto the floor. I did say the beer was good!

This just beat another embarrassing moment when I again fell on my backside. This time I was blown over by the a gust of wind during the last vestiges of Storm Eowyn. At least I fared better than a magpie that was also caught out by the gusty wind and died yards away having been blown against a building.

Best Bar: Spry, as usual. We managed to get there almost every week.

Best Cinema: Everyman Cinema. It was our first visit to an Everyman cinema that serves food and drink to you in the auditorium while you relax on their sofa-like seats. I made two mistakes; first I didn’t understand the ordering system and needed to be prompted by the staff to indulge. Then I unwisely chose their largest bottle of beer – daft if you need to sit through a two-hour film without a loo visit. We saw the Dylan biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’ and really enjoyed the whole experience.

Best Toastie: The toastie I had at the aptly named Toast in Morningside Road was exceptional. But for consistency over several visits, I’d recommend Cairngorm Coffee just up the road from where we stayed. We even had a special Valentines Day orange flavoured toastie there.

Best Restaurant: We didn’t make it to as many as planned but taking our Edinburgh family to The Free Company, a farm and restaurant in the outskirts of Edinburgh on the edge of the Pentland Hills was a real treat. FG behaved impeccably and did some good dancing on the way out that put my Dad-Dancing to shame.

*^{The Free Company Restaurant As We Arrived (It Was Almost Full When We Left)}*

Best Museum was, of course, the National Museum of Scotland which we visit almost every time we are in Edinburgh. However, for the first time, I also visited the Surgeons’ Hall Museum and enjoyed that. This museum has several parts covering the origins, history and the future of surgery. The section called the Wohl Pathology Museum was very impressive although, after 20 minutes of looking at exhibits showing deformed, vitamin-deficient skeletons and the results of cancer on internal organs, I felt a little squeamish and cut the visit short.

*^{Outside The Surgeons’ Hall Museum (No Photos Allowed Inside)}*

Correction. I covered best art galleries, cathedrals and graveyards in earlier posts. However, before moving on from Edinburgh posts, I should just correct a prior statement about there being two cathedrals in Edinburgh. ES’s father-in-law corrected me and pointed out that there is also St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral nestled next to the new St James’s Shopping Centre and overlooking a plaza with modern and old statues. For completeness, here it is…..

Maybe we will pop inside and have a closer look during our next Edinburgh visit.

Edinburgh: Graveyards and Galleries

February 28, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

I have always been interested in visiting old graveyards. They are generally quiet places for reflection, a secluded refuge for wildlife, and also a rather oblique representation of history and of lives lived. For me, those characteristics more than offset any feeling of sadness or mournfulness derived from their function.

Edinburgh has a number of graveyards in or near its centre. While Jane was resting her broken arm, I took the opportunity to visit a few.

*^{St John’s and St Cuthbert’s Churches At The End Of Princes Street}*

At the west end of Princes Street is Saint Cuthbert’s Churchyard. It seemed to be the nearest cemetery to our holiday flat. This is a very old graveyard with burials believed to have dated from the 14th century and probably much earlier. It is one of a few graveyards in Edinburgh that has a watchtower, built in the 19th century, for guards aiming to prevent bodysnatching for the purposes of medical science.

*^{St Cuthbert’s Churchyard Between St Cuthbert’s And St John’s Churches}*

Another such watch tower is in New Calton Burial Ground. This has great views over Holyrood, Arthurs Seat and the government buildings and alleys off Canongate. Like many of the graveyards I visited, it has a map to show the location of graves of the Edinburgh ‘great and good’. On the day of my visit, the northern end was full of birdsong.

*^{New Carlton Burial Ground Including Its Watchtower}*

*^{View From Near The New Carlton Burial Ground – Canongate Kirk, Salisbury Crags and Arthurs Seat}*

New Carlton Burial Ground was overspill from the nearby Old Calton Burial Ground which I have visited before and which has memorials to a number of notable Scots, including famous radicals of whom some were deported to Australia for their troubles.

In Canongate is Canongate Kirkyard. The Kirk and its Cemetery which was created when decreed that the inhabitants of the Canongate would no longer be allowed to worship at Holyrood Abbey in 1687. It is the resting place of Adam Smith, the famous Scottish philosopher and economist.

^{View From Canongate Kirkyard – Carlton Hill In The Background}

This cemetery has views back to Carlton Hill and is a peaceful haven just yards away from the many tourists – even at this time of year – strolling between Holyrood and The Royal Mile. I too, wandered down to Holyrood Palace but, impressive as it looks from outside, I demurred from paying £25 to enter the grounds and house; maybe I will on a future rainy, rather than just grey, day in the City.

*^{Holyrood Palace On A Grey Edinburgh Day}*

Unlike the other graveyards I visited, Greyfriars Kirkyard was crowded with tourists eager to follow up on apparent connections to Harry Potter characters and the famous story of Greyfriars Bobby, a terrier who sat by and guarded the grave of his owner (a nightwatchmen at the cemetery) for 14 years, without a break, until he too died.

The more interesting aspects for me were the scale and disposition of the mausoleums in Greyfriars Kirk. These proliferated from the 1660s when burial in Greyfriars Church was prohibited. Families of the dead apparently compensated for not being allowed inside by erecting very large monuments outside. Some of these directly attach to the houses around the graveyard (see below).

*^{Greyfriars Kirkyard and The Greyfriars Bobby Monument}*

Further afield, I stumbled across two other cemeteries. Dean Cemetery, behind high walls and full of mature trees, was very quiet except for the birds. The cemetery is attractive – if you like this sort of thing – but the grey skies gave the cemetery a rather melancholy air and I plan to return when the trees are in leaf and the atmosphere is brighter.

Even prettier – perhaps helped by the blue skies overhead when I visited – was Grange Cemetery. I found this during a rather random walk south of the centre of Edinburgh. I noticed the imposing surrounding walls and found a way in. Like Dean Cemetery it is in two halves. Here however, the divide here is not a wall but a long array of catacombs that are halfway underground; an interesting dimension to the site.

The Grange Association do a great job of maintaining the cemetery and of documenting its history and its ‘residents’. Thanks to that, I found the grave of Robin Cook who was one of my political heroes 20-25 years ago. His gravestone has a nice epitaph referring to the Iraq war: ‘I may not have succeeded in halting the war but I did secure the right of Parliament to decide on war’.

*^{Grange Cemetery And Catacombs (With Robin Cook’s Gravestone Top Right)}*

In the last week of our Edinburgh stay, I returned to the National Gallery of Scotland to see the permanent collection and we also returned together to Dovecote Studios to see an really excellent exhibition presenting the Scottish Colourists.

^{My Favourite Picture In The Scottish Colourists Exhibition At Dovecote Studios Exhibition – By Arthur Melville, A Forerunner and Mentor to the Colourists}

The Scottish Colourists were a group of just four artists who were at their peak in terms of quality and influence in the art world in the first half of the 20^th century. Unlike Jane, I hadn’t heard of any of them as I entered the exhibition. But interesting information about them was carefully presented and their influencers, and those they influenced, were summarised and then underlined with examples. I loved the exhibition and felt I learnt a lot.

*^{The Scottish Colourists: Works By (clockwise from top left) SJ Peploe, FCB Cadell, JD Fergusson And Leslie Hunter}*

Another interesting exhibition I saw was at the Talbot Rice Gallery. The gallery is part of Edinburgh University and is within the wonderful buildings of Old College. The art on show was at another end of the spectrum from that of the Scottish Colourists. Let’s just say that the anti-woke brigade would not have approved.

The first part was an exhibition of videos by Gabrielle Goliath relating to violence against women. The videos were images of women describing their experiences but the words were truncated so that only the gaps between their words remained. It was strangely powerful albeit with really just the one idea and the explanations of the videos were too high-falutin for me to absorb properly.

Much more aesthetically pleasing but equally, weirdly impactful was an exhibition of work by Guadalupe Maravilla, an child refugee and cancer survivor from El Salvador. It’s hard to describe the work (see below) but the allusions to healing, trauma and displacement were fascinating. All this was in a single, splendid room bedecked with hammocks for the ‘healing gods’; it was all very dramatic.

*^{The Work Of Guadalupe Maravilla At The Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh}*

Jane and I also visited a couple of the multitude of private galleries in Edinburgh. One, the Open Eye Gallery, had some work by a friend of hers, Gail Turpin, who’s exhibition we visited last summer when we were in the city. I liked her watercolours but was even more taken by a room showing paintings by James Fairgrieve and by a few ceramics by Rachel Wood.

*^{Inside The Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh}*

The other was the oft-visited The Scottish Gallery just up from where Eldest Son lives. As soon as I walked in my eyes fell on a couple of Joan Eardley paintings. I’d never heard of her until we started to visit Edinburgh a few years ago, but love all her paintings of sea and fields that I have seen since.

*^{One Of Joan Eardley’s Paintings At The Scottish Gallery}*

We originally planned day trips to Glasgow and Fife whilst in Edinburgh. In the absence of those, I was very happy visiting Edinburgh’s graveyards and galleries, and wandering through the wonderful Georgian architecture of central Edinburgh, where most streets seem to have a monument or imposing building at their end. It’s a great city to visit, and, I think, to live in.

^{Buildings At Night At The End Of The Street Of Our Holiday Home, Edinburgh}

Edinburgh Cathedrals and Outskirts

February 14, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Before Jane broke her arm, we spent large parts of each day absorbing Edinburgh: the city and its sights. We walked to the shops, to the cinema, to the bars and cafes we frequented and even, somewhat aimlessly, to just take in the Georgian architecture of New Town or to discover slightly unfamiliar areas on its margins. We were priding ourselves on our step counts while taking in the ambiance of the city and seeing some new places.

For example, for the first time in all our past Edinburgh visits we went to both the cathedrals in the city. St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral is actually just at the end of the street with our Airbnb. It’s a relatively modern cathedral but it is in a gothic style. It is large, imposing and pleasantly airy, and set in grassy grounds.

St Giles’ Cathedral is far older and is set right in the heart of Edinburgh next to the Royal Mile. It has a lovely open spire and a pleasingly compact shape. Inside, the layout is unusual with a central altar. I liked the atmosphere, the scale of the place and the fact that it encouraged donations rather than imposed an entrance fee.

The Thistle Chapel that was bolted onto the side of the Cathedral in 1911, is a particularly interesting aspect of the building. The chapel was designed and built in the neo-gothic arts and crafts style for the Knights of the Thistle, an order of chivalry associated with Scotland which dates back to 1687. This order consists of sixteen members and a new member is only ‘invested’ when another dies. Each member is represented around the chapel with statues or, more recently, plate crests. I loved the cool, almost damp atmosphere in the chapel and some of the diverse stories of the past and current members.

*^{The Thistle Chapel, St Giles’ Cathedral}*

We also ventured outside of the City. We visited South Queensferry which Jane had seen described somewhere as the UK’s second prettiest town. It has a quaint high street and some interesting buildings and gardens nearby.

*^{South Queensferry Looking West From The Beach}*

However, I think the most remarkable thing about the town is the view across the Firth of Forth between the road and the rail bridge. The rail bridge was originally built in 1890 and I’m not surprised that it has been voted Scotland’s greatest man-made wonder; it is a terrific, dramatic structure.

*^{Road And Rail From South Queens Ferry; A Panorama}*

We spent a day in Border Country south of Edinburgh. The journey south through the Pentland Hills and past the Eildon Hills to Melrose was very attractive.

Melrose is a pretty town with a number of tourist attractions (mainly closed for the winter). The Abbey on the town outskirts looked great in the sunny weather. However, it was clear that it is undergoing significant renovation and repair so we didn’t venture into its grounds. Instead we simply strolled around the town for a while and then set off to see nearby Dryburgh Abbey.

I vaguely recall visiting Dryburgh Abbey when I was a teenager. It has changed a lot less than me since then but Historic Scotland have, I suspect, increased the information available around the site. This did illuminate what it must have been like to be a Premonstratensian monk in the 12^th century. Apart from the 2am nocturnal mass, the vow of silence and the bitter cold, it didn’t look like being such a bad life!

The abbey is now a lovely ruin surrounded by very mature trees and well-kept grassland leading down to the River Tweed. Sir Walter Scott is buried amongst the ruins. We were almost the only visitors at the time and the Abbey and its environs were peaceful and relaxing to walk around.

We drove on to Selkirk and then Peebles. We started on roads along the sparkling River Tweed but were diverted, due to bridge repairs, onto a hillside route. I was surprised at how wild the landscape is around Peebles and, given that we were in no rush, the diversion proved to be a welcome one.

We found a relatively fast electric car charger on the edge on Peebles town centre and walked into the town. We took on board cake and coffee at The Milkman and wandered up the high street of what was a spa town. It was all very relaxing and pleasant, and, all the while, reminding me of childhood holidays with my parents in the Tweed Valley.

We headed home chattering about our impending day of baby-sitting First Grandchild the next day, unaware, of course, that subsequent events would prevent that, or further big trips before we return home. At least we managed to see some Scottish countryside and we can comfort ourselves with the knowledge that it will be there still when we return in the future.

A Different Way In Edinburgh

February 7, 2025 / fgrtommo / 3 Comments

We are booked for a month into a very comfortable, nicely warm and well-furnished Airbnb in central Edinburgh that has a view of the Castle. Our idea has been to try a model for visiting Edinburgh that is different from our usual 3-4 night stays with Eldest Son, wife and First Grandchild. In part it is just an extended holiday, but in part a test as to how we might find living more permanently in this wonderful city.

*^{Sunrise Over Edinburgh Castle From Our Airbnb}*

The first two weeks have been extremely successful – until a bit of a disaster yesterday; more on that later.

We have already visited lots of Edinburgh sights – the museums, cathedrals, galleries and exhibitions – got into the hinterlands of Edinburgh and, of course, done a bit of grandchild entertainment. Were lucky enough to have a double dose of grandchildren when Middle Son, his fiancée and Second Grandchild visited us on our second weekend. That visit, plus the nature of the intermittent contact with First Grandchild over a longer period than usual, has created a bit of a feel of living here rather than just holidaying here.

*^{Edinburgh From The Top Of The National Museum of Scotland}*

No doubt that feeling would have been further enhanced by Youngest Son and his wife being able to join us as planned on our first weekend in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, Storm Eowyn put paid to that. Their flight was cancelled and Edinburgh was all but shut down during the worst if the storm. Even at the end of the storm, the gusts of wind were strong enough to knock me off my feet!

Because of, first, Storm Eowyn, and then a visit from Middle Son and family, we have tended to eat in rather than out. However, we have sampled a couple of our favourite bars and a few cafés, and we love the local pub (Teuchters). Anyway, there are two more weeks for trying some more recommended restaurants.

*^{Another View of Edinburgh Castle From Flodden Wall}*

Cooking in a holiday home is not new to us but doing so most evenings over a few weeks is another way of generating a feeling of being ‘home from home’ rather than just being on holiday. Next week, we are even entertaining Eldest Son’s parents in law. That will be a further novelty but a nice reflection of how things might be if we moved to Edinburgh more permanently.

During our days here, we have been very active. We have, of course, sampled the normal delights of the Royal Botanic Garden the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, the Modern Art Gallery of Scotland the Scottish National Gallery and the National Museum of Scotland. Edinburgh is a capital and has public buildings, exhibitions and collections to match that status. There were new exhibitions in all of the galleries and all were a pleasure to visit – although it was sad to see the Storm Eowyn damage in the Botanic Gardens.

*^{Storm Damage – One Of The Largest Cedars In The Royal Botanic Gardens Has Gone}*

The Scottish National Gallery is celebrating 40 years of its photography collection and curation. Photography is not my favourite art form but it was good to see some pictures by some famous photographers (such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Annie Liebovitz, and Lee Miller) among the often gritty, local Scottish fare.

*^{40 Year Celebration Of Scottish Photography Collection – Including The Iconic Lennon/Ono Photo}*

The Modern Art Gallery continues to show the substantial Everlyn Nicodemus exhibition which I saw on our last Edinburgh visit. I sped through that but perhaps somehow enjoyed it a little more on a second viewing; plus, there are several other works in the gallery’s permanent collection I had not focused on before.

^{‘After the Birth’ By Everlyn Nicodemus}

The Scottish National Gallery had a sequel to an exhibition of JMW Turner watercolours that I had seen in the gallery two years previously. That had shown the section of the Henry Vaughan collection of Turner watercolours that had been bequeathed to Scotland. This new exhibition was of the selection of watercolours bequeathed to Northern Ireland that again, as part of conditions of the donation, can only be shown to the public in January.

*^{Turner Watercolours at the National Gallery of Scotland}*

There were no surprises in the collection of blurry seascapes, sunrises, sunsets and mountain valleys shrouded in mist. But I like Turner’s style and enjoyed the viewing despite the long queues to get in.

Also at the National Gallery was a small exhibition of art inspired by the landscape of the Orkneys, called ‘In Orcadia’ and including large, interestingly constructed paintings by Samantha Clark.

That was good but even better, I thought, was the large exhibition of paintings by the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. There were hundreds of paintings on show and of course, not all hit the spot for me. But overall, I thought the quality was very high and I could imagine several on my living room wall.

^{The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour Annual Exhibition}

We also went to diverse art exhibitions at Dovecote Studios and the City Art Centre. At Dovecote we saw textiles and paintings by Ptolemy Mann. The designs were colourful and bold but Jane was a little disappointed that the majority of the textiles were manufactured in India not Scotland.

*^{Dovecote Studios And Ptolemy Mann Artwork}*

At the City Art Centre were two exhibitions of modern Scottish art and of pop art; I liked the pots by Lara Scobie at the former and the typically irreverent set of cartoonish watercolours by the seemingly slightly unhinged, David Shrigley.

^{Works By Lara Scobie and David Shrigley At The City Art Centre, Edinburgh}

We made a couple of trips to the National Museum of Scotland. The first to see some of the displays that we don’t get much of a chance to see when accompanied by First Grandchild. The second was with him; his increasingly calm inquisitiveness was a joy to participate in.

One concept we discussed, as we passed some of the dinosaur and wild animal exhibits, was that of skeletons. Subsequent conversations indicate that he understood how creatures often have skeletons and that you can’t see until after they are dead. It’s fascinating to watch children learn.

*^{Everything From Dinosaurs To Hi-Tech On Show At The National Museum of Scotland}*

And now we come to the misfortune of yesterday….. Apart from Storm Eowyn, the weather during our stay has been largely dry and sunny. However, it has also been cold and yesterday morning my wife, Jane, slipped on some ice and, it turned out, broke her shoulder. The pictures of x-rays that we came away from the hospital with have helped First Grandchild understand the importance of bones but there is no other upside to the accident.

We’ll cope and enjoy the rest of our stay in Edinburgh but plans regarding how are changing……

Heading Into 2025

January 13, 2025 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

My memories of Christmas are beginning to dissolve into a blur of having felt very good about the convivial familial get together. It was great to have our close family in our house – the only exception being Youngest Son’s wife who had to dog-sit in Belfast. It was, once again, amusing and interesting to see the two grandchildren in close proximity and to compare and contrast their current, very different characters. Jane ran the kitchen with help from all and we ate and drank well. But now we head into 2025 with the promise of new challenges and entertainments.

The cold snap has brough some frosty and icy conditions underfoot but some beautiful clear air and skies. My physiotherapist has advised me to continue walking despite my uncomfortable knee and so I have limped around to keep it mobile. I think that continued walking, and the daily exercises I’ve been given, are helping my knee although they have also strained other parts of my hips and legs so health sometimes feels like a running battle.

I’ve been thinking about New Year resolutions as I always do at this time of year (but, usually, not so much thereafter). I will maintain my ongoing targets for drink free days, limiting alcohol unit intake, weight and walking steps. However, I also want to be more proactive generally about the various health niggles that I suppose are inevitable at this time of life.

*^{More Cold Walking On The Way To Town}*

I’m also keen to do better on a resolution I made this time last year: to be more creative and do more creative things. I made some progress early last year with visible sock darning, devising and running a darts competition in the local pub, and creating a few treasure hunts for First Grandchild. But my creativity petered out and, for example, the Kintsugi kit remains untouched and making sourdough bread is on hold. I must do better.

I also need to read more books and not just newspapers and magazines given that I enjoy fiction so much. I have resolved to read more during the day since, currently, I never manage more than a few pages each night in bed just before nodding off. Currently a 500-page book takes me almost 6 months to get through even when it’s a good read (as I think Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver is).

My ability to find that daytime reading space is related to a resolution to nap less after lunch. I love our very comfortable sofa adjacent to the kitchen with its view out into the garden and nearby copse so I just have to avoid sitting on it after lunch!

Our local Talk Club for men sharing how they feel and what they are going to do about improving their mental health, has restarted after a 6-month hiatus. At the first meeting of the year, held in a new location above the village pub, I realised once again that my only real anxieties at the moment are rooted in health – which I need to take a bit more control of where I can – and world events. So, another resolution is to reduce use of social media (I have already left the increasingly toxic ‘X’) and continue last year’s resolution and listen to the news on the radio even less. I’m not sure if that will help but Talk Club is a good mechanism to ensure that I think about how world news affects my well-being and if increased abstention from hearing about it makes any difference.

The year has, apart from the ongoing health irritants, started well. Following the family-oriented period over Christmas, I have resumed visits to the village pub and contacts with friends and acquaintances in the village. It is clear from talking to them that I, and Jane, have been fortunate to avoid flu so far this winter.

*^{Promising Sunrise Viewed From Our House}*

Also, Jane has gone off for a week-long sewing retreat at Merchant & Mills, her favourite sewing pattern manufacturer and textile sales room in Rye. That has been a nice change for us both; she has enjoyed the retreat and learnt some new sewing skills while I have fended for myself successfully and have got to watch some streamed series in the television that Jane has no interest in (Series 3 of Industry on BBC iPlayer is, again, remarkable).

Next, we have an innovative trip to Edinburgh – innovative in the sense that it is a month-long stay rather than just a long weekend. We are both excited about how it will feel to be on holiday for so long (with the logistics helped a little by the likelihood of a bit of house sitting by some family members while we are away). We are looking forward to seeing the Edinburgh branch of the family in a different context and over a longer period than usual and to getting to know Edinburgh even better. The icing on the mid-winter break cake is that we are accommodating the Bristol and Belfast branches of the family on a couple of weekends while we are there. It’s a stimulating start to 2025.

A Birthday and Christmas Prep

December 20, 2024 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Having grandchildren coming to stay with us at Christmas has added a higher than ever level of expectation of fun around the festive period. I keep envisaging their excitement when the big day comes. For example, I’m looking forward to the wonderment of First Grandchild (who is now three years old) when the sherry, mince pie and carrots we will leave out for Father Christmas and his reindeer disappear overnight, to be replaced by present-filled stockings. We are ready!

But first, the last few weeks have contained much enjoyment of different kinds. First there was FG’s third birthday and a visit to Edinburgh to share in that. Then we had friends from London staying with us, followed by a choral concert in the nearby town of Tetbury and a test of our grandparenting skills while looking after Second Grandchild unsupervised.

In between, there has been preparation for Christmas, a bit of physiotherapy for my knee, wrapping up of my volunteering duties for the year at the local school and food bank, and the writing of a draft Parish Nature Action Plan for the Parish Council. It’s not work but it’s felt quite busy.

As usual, we loved our time in Edinburgh. The trip up in the car was pretty smooth (though the freezing cold weather slowing operation of some of the electric vehicle chargers on the way back was problematic).

*^{Freezing Weather On The Way South From Edinburgh – Lovely To See But Limiting On EV Battery Capacity And Charging Rates!}*

Once in Edinburgh, the hospitality Eldest Son (ES) and his wife lay on was as lovely as ever and further enhanced by their newly refurbished kitchen. It was great too to see ES’s parents in law, as we usually do, over a big Indian takeaway. We got out and about to see some of the sights that are now becoming familiar to us. Plus, of course, the centrepiece of our visit was FG’s birthday party.

FG’s birthday party was shared with that of his best male friend and it was very successful. The bouncy castle was very popular and FG spent a lot of time on that. There were a variety of other toys and activities around the room and these were also well used. The brutal beating of a Piñata in the form of a cardboard donkey full of sweets felt a little incongruous and unsettling but was a highlight for the birthday boys. For the adults, there were a few beers to provide some relaxation amid the hubbub of the kids scurrying around and the simple, raw excitement in the room.

*^{Along The Water Of Leith Near Dean Villag}*^{e, Edinburgh}

I skipped out of some of the post-party clearing up to watch Forest Green Rovers Football Club play (and win!) a vital top-of-the-table game on the television. I also skipped out on one, sunny afternoon to walk down the Water of Leith to Dean Village and then to the Modern Art Galleries.

*^{View From Outside Modern One Gallery, Edinburgh}*

At Modern One gallery (there are two separate national galleries of modern art) I saw an exhibition by Everlyn Nicodemus. It was a larger exhibition than I expected (especially given that it was free) and, by the end, I was also surprised by its variety. I can’t confess to have been moved much by the work but a lot of it was wonderfully colourful and vibrant. The whole experience of walking around the exhibition with so few others was quietly pleasing. It always seems worthwhile visiting Edinburgh’s art galleries.

*^{Some Of The Colourful Paintings By Everlyn Nicodemus}*

We also always seem to make time to take FG to the Royal Botanic Garden and the National Museum of Scotland. The Botanic Gardens are great year-round and FG likes the visits to the café there. FG also loves both seeing the exhibits at the National Museum – especially the natural history section – and getting to and from it on the bus. Watching FG’s mind take in all the sights in the museum is very rewarding and I never tire of going there.

*^{Natural History Hall At The National Museum Of Scotland}*

Next month we are visiting Edinburgh again and, this time, for a month. It will be a very different experience our usual long weekends with ES and his wife. I hope the Air BnB we have chosen is as good as it looks.

Although the weather is bound to be wintery, our stay will, at one level, feel like an extended holiday and we will be a couple of tourists taking in the sights again. But, on another level, it is a bit of a trial run for seeing if we would like to move more substantially to Edinburgh. We are both excited by the prospect of spending more time in the city; Edinburgh is such a wonderful place and being near ES’s family for a few weeks will enable a different relationship with all of them, at least temporarily.

Back home, we entertained our London guests with extended chat, Jane’s cooking, plenty of drink, a lunch at The Woolpack Inn in Slad (in our opinion, the best local pub food) and a walk by the Severn to see the Purton Hulks.

*^{Along The Canal Walk Towards The Severn And The Purton Hulks}*

These ‘hulks’ are boats deliberately run ashore and filled with debris and concrete to form a barrier between the tidal Severn River and the adjacent canal. They create a rather ghostly atmosphere and an interesting historical distraction from the huge views up and down the Severn estuary.

*^{One Of The Purton Hulks Overlooking The Severn Estuary (Tide Out)}*

Our entertaining skills were also tested when we looked after Second Grandchild (SG) for a few hours while Middle Son and his fiancée went out for lunch – their first outing together without SG since he arrived. It turned out to be a breeze. SG seemed curious about us substituting for his parents but calm and quietly playful. When he refused to have a nap in his nursery, I took him out in his buggy. While we were out, he was attentive to his surroundings, regarded me with apparent interest and occasional smiles, and then gently fell asleep. What a pleasure retirement is when one can do things like that with a grandchild!

Now Christmas is approaching. To get in the mood we went to a choral concert in a very Christmassy Tetbury. The concert was in the main church which is very spacious and dominated by rows of high, enclosed pews. The church looked marvellous with so many candles lit on huge chandeliers and elsewhere, and the concert sounded great when the choir was in full blooded flow.

*^{The Standish Consort And Ensemble La Notte at St Mary’s Church, Tetbury}*

Now we look forward to our sons arriving for Christmas. Youngest Son arrives later today (unfortunately without new wife who is bound to Belfast by their dog for this trip). Then Eldest Son’s entourage arrives next week before Middle Son, his fiancée and SG arrive on Christmas Eve. The semi-planned Christmas schedule is full of fun and games, walks and meals, Secret Santa, and sitting around the wood-burner and kitchen playing and chatting with the little ones and adults alike.

Now I have retired and I have no background (or foreground!) thoughts of work to contend with during the festive period, I can focus on all of the above. It’s a treat and a luxury.

Autumn’s Hidden Notes and Gems

November 7, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

We are well into Autumn. There are mushrooms underfoot and local trees are looking lovely in their yellows, browns and reds as they shut down for winter. Our social whirl, which was so active with weddings and holidays a few weeks ago, has slowed but it hasn’t shut down. We have enjoyed several very pleasurable outings and visits and have a few more lined up during the rest of the month.

The backdrop to this has been activity to prepare our rental property for a new tenant after a several month gap for repairs and, now, moving furniture around to enable restoration of our house’s ground level wooden floors. It’s been a busy period of the routine, of renewal and of entertainment gems.

Back in September, still in our ‘wedding period’, we attended Stroud’s annual Hidden Notes festival of electronic and ambient music. We last attended in 2019 and the festival has become much more popular since then. We underestimated that and only just managed to get a seat before the central concert event became standing room only.

We saw five different artists over a six-hour period (thank goodness we got those seats!). Not all the music was to our tastes but all the performers were interesting in some way. Laura Cannell kicked things off with pleasant, off-beat, folky music on violin and a strange-looking bass recorder.

Hekla was even stranger. She is an Icelandic expert in playing the ‘Theremin’ which is a Soviet invention from the 1920s and is now an instrument that makes sound without physical contact as the artist moves around it and disrupts the electric signals it emits. It produced a rather bizarre, eerie sound and it was fun to watch Helka waving arms and hands around.

^{Mary Lattimore and Suzanne Ciani At St Lawrence Church, Stroud During The ‘Hidden Notes’ Festival}

Echo Collective, a group of classically trained Belgian musicians, sounded rather sombre. Their set was a rather slow burn but ultimately satisfying. Then came Mary Lattimore, an American harpist. I know her work well and was very much looking forward to hearing her in person. I wasn’t disappointed; it was great to see how the sounds she makes on her albums are actually made. Those sounds were lovely with occasional unexpected twists.

The evening was completed by Suzanne Ciani. She is an electronic music pioneer and she brought some very retro equipment with her. The most remarkable thing about her performance was her sprightliness at the age of 78. The music, however, was a difficult listen for our ears. That didn’t dent our enjoyment of the Hidden Notes event; it’s a little gem in the Cotswolds.

A more substantial outing was, more recently, to South Somerset and ‘a restaurant with rooms’ called Holm. I have wanted to revisit Wells Cathedral since passing it unexpectedly while following SatNav on the way back from Youngest Son’s Stag do in the summer. Holm in South Petherton was a hotel and restaurant Jane had been attracted to during one of her Instagram searches. Our trip was a win-win for us both.

*^{Wells Cathedral (Top), Vicars Close (Medieval Houses Built For The Cathedral Choir), And The Bishops Palace}*

The whole outing was bathed in Autumn sunshine and was very rewarding. The area immediately around Wells Cathedral and the Bishops Palace is beautiful. Wells Cathedral itself has some really wonderful features.

Holm provided very attractively decorated, comfortable rooms and innovative and excellent food. Despite a problem with the hot water on the first morning, we had a very good stay.

^{The Studio at Holm and Our Tasteful Room}

Holm is in the small market town of South Petherton. The church was attractive, there were numerous interesting old houses mainly constructed from a limestone that had a lovely orange hue.

*^{South Petherton Church And A Fives Wall (Bottom Right)}*

Perhaps most remarkably, South Petherton has a ‘fives’ wall in someone’s garden (and we saw another later in a nearby village). The game of fives became a popular sport in South Somerset from the mid-18th century. Churchwarden accounts record damage from fives being played against church towers. To prevent this, purpose-built fives walls were constructed in the yards of inns and large gardens and here was a surprising example of that (see below).

On the way to South Petherton we stopped off at the familiar and elegant At the Chapel for a coffee and then Hauser & Wirth in Bruton. We have been to both several times before.

There always seems to be an exhibition at Hauser & Wirth that is worth seeing. On this occasion it was an exhibition by Dame Phyllida Barlow who Jane seemed to be familiar with (I wasn’t). Her work was both in the indoor exhibition spaces and in the gardens. The scale of some of it was impressive and I quite liked the collection of small paintings but I don’t believe either of us was much moved. Instead, we retreated to a good lunch in Da Costa, the new Hauser & Wirth restaurant..

*^{Works By Dame Phyllida Barlow At Hauser & Wirth, Bruton}*

*^{Hauser & Wirth Gardens With Dame Phyllida Barlow’s Sculptures}*

Of course, once settled into our very nice hotel room, we used Holm as a base to visit a few other local places of interest. Once again, the life memberships of the National Trust that we were given as presents decades ago by my Mum and Dad came in very handy and were much re-appreciated.

We visited Montacute House gardens and benefited from an informative guide to the late Elizabethan architecture. The house itself was closed due to an ‘incident’ but, armed with our membership cards, there was no disappointment – we can simply come again another year. The house is very impressive from the outside and the gardens were quiet and pleasant in the Autumn sunshine.

We popped into East Lambrook Manor Gardens which is famous as an archetype cottage garden created by Margery Fish in the second half of the 20th century. Because of the lateness of the season there was limited colour in the garden. Even so, the mix of old buildings, autumnal trees, seed heads and densely planted beds were lovely. All this was augmented by a selection of steel plant-like sculptures by a local artist (Chris Kampf). We were left wondering how much longer the attractive set-up will last given the ‘For Sale’ sign we saw on the way out – we hope it does as it’s clearly lovingly looked after by the current incumbents and was another little hidden gem for us to see.

*^{East Lambrook Manor Gardens, Somerset}*

Finally, we visited Barrington Court and its twin, Strode House. This was owned by the Tate family of sugar, golden syrup and Tate Gallery fame. The spacious gardens and vistas were wonderful in the late afternoon sun. Inside the house, was the long and interesting story of restoration and development of the house – first by the Tate family and then the National Trust. This restoration is ongoing but the areas that were open were very nicely presented.

*^{Barrington Court And Strode House, Somerset}*

Back home we went to a gem of very local entertainment: a rather surreal but very funny village pantomime. It poked fun at the local village of Horsley and its hamlets, the misplacement of parcels delivered to village residents and other local peculiarities – all in a very quirky way along the theme of Alice in Wonderland. In a village of just 300 households there is a lot of talent and the entertainment provided was priceless.

*^{The Village Panto: ‘Alice’s Adventures In Horsley’}*

The rest of the last few weeks has been more routine but with highlights of visits by Eldest Son’s family and his parents in law, and a few visits by Middle Son and his fiancée. It is so heart-warming to see our grandchildren. It’s a different love to that we felt towards our own kids. Maybe recollections of our love for them when they were growing up is blurred by time. Oddly, my love for our sons feels even greater now, and my adoration of both grandchildren is incredibly intense; we both love it when they visit us.

We have more visits by London friends and another visit to Edinburgh for First Grandchild’s third birthday coming up in the next few weeks. Each event will be a welcome distraction from disturbing international events and a little fillip to our lives; autumnal gems for the memory banks.

Joy At A Belfast Wedding

October 9, 2024October 10, 2024 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

The last weekend of September was one of life’s memorable high points. I’m still humming from the pleasure of that weekend during which our Youngest Son (YS) got married to a lovely Belfast woman who he has known for almost 10 years.

The tear-jerking (for me, anyway) formal ceremony itself was in the impressive Belfast City Hall. Before and after these formalities, there were great opportunities to meet up with the bride and grooms’ friends and family and to celebrate the marriage. There were weekend events in a hipster brewery bar, in a traditional central Belfast pub, at the newly married couple’s home and at an impeccably organized and delivered reception at Waterman House. The vast majority of our close family was there – including both our grandchildren. Jane and I loved every minute. I think the bride and groom had a rather special time too!

*^{Sun Shining, A Beautiful Building And A Happy Couple}*

Life can be wonderful (if you can avoid things like climate-change-accentuated weather catastrophe’s, poverty, wars, and ill health). I have always been a ‘half-empty’ person who worries about the news and the future. However, Jane would say that we need to live in and appreciate the current moments and certainly this Belfast wedding weekend was compelling encouragement to think that way.

Jane and I know how fortunate we are to be able to have experienced grandchildren and to see our sons married to such lovely people. It is now just Middle Son (MS) to go on the marriage front but he and his fiancée have already given us the privilege of Second Grandchild. He was a little marvel throughout the Belfast trip and celebrations. He was so calm as he was passed around the revellers and I was personally chuffed by the number of instant and gorgeous smiles I got from him during the weekend.

First Grandchild (FG) was a treat too. Although he struggled with my explanations of the concept of marriage, he fell further in love with the bride – perhaps that was because she was dressed a bit like an angel – and he loved the hugs he got from her.

We, and our two elder sons and their families, stayed at the ideally located, cool and very comfortable Bullitt Hotel. Our room was large enough for us to give Eldest Son and his wife a break by playing indoor games with FG. Jane played a card pairing game and we introduced him to the idea of paper planes. He played enthusiastically with one for ages; who needs manufactured toys!?

Jane also took FG off during the wedding reception since he was struggling with the noise levels and needed a break. Jane only just made it back in time to deliver her speech. I found a draft version of her speech on my phone in case I needed to step in but the Master of Ceremonies – a naturally funny and larger-than-life Australian friend of the now married couple – had the situation under control. Jane returned just in time to deliver perfectly. All the speeches including those from the bride’s parents and another Australian friend of the married couple were amusing and hit their mark.

We ate extremely well and Watermans Restaurant did a tremendous job of delivering four choices of three courses of food to so many very efficiently and effectively. The drinks flowed and the music and dancing started. As the music got louder so I spent more time in the adjacent alley so I could hear conversations with my ageing ears. My ageing knees didn’t prevent a bit of Dad-dancing though. However, I saw from subsequently released video that the dancing became increasingly rumbustious after Jane and I left the youngsters to it.

In between all the wedding related events we enjoyed the sunny weather and Belfast. Breakfast each day quickly settled into a routine of meeting with grandchildren and their parents at Established, a café we seem to visit during every Belfast trip. The food is simple but just right for me and the Americano coffee is great. We also had excellent lunches there and at General Merchants in Ormeau Road. Belfast is small relative to, say Bristol, London or Edinburgh but it has become well equipped with enough excellent, modern cafes and restaurants.

^{Belfast’s Botanic Gardens And Ulster Museum}

We wandered through the Botanic Gardens and visited the Ulster Museum again. Our intention was to visit an exhibition on Belfast political murals. That was closed so we diverted to another exhibition of textiles created around the world to illustrate conflict and humanitarian issues (“Threads of Empowerment: Conflict Textiles’ International Journey”).

*^{Inside The “Threads of Empowerment” Exhibition}*

*^{A Collective Catalonian Arpillera Called ‘Hands On’ Showing Community Self Help With Over 200 Characters – One Of The More Positive Pieces On Show}*

We had seen something similar at Kettles Yard, Cambridge about a year ago. That had exhibited Palestinian embroidery. This Ulster Museum exhibition covered a wider international scope. Many of the works focused on South American conflicts and especially ‘The Disappeared’ but the most moving works for me were reflections on the Holocaust by Heidi Drahota, a German (below).

The museum has an excellent ceramics section and a very good permanent exhibition covering the Northern Irish Troubles which we saw last visit. We saved revisiting the latter for another trip so as not to risk the upbeat mood of the weekend. Not that much could have dented that.

*^{Inside Ulster Museum: The Ceramics Section}*

It was great that the wider family made the effort to come to the wedding, it was great to meet or re-meet the married couple’s friends, it was great that the sun shone and that the whole event passed off in lovely locations without a blemish. It was a perfect Belfast wedding and we are very happy that YS and his partner have (finally) ‘tied the knot’ and that we have more visits to Northern Ireland in prospect.

*^{Views Of Belfast – We’ll Be Back Soon!}*

Roman Wedding

September 25, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

The wedding of one of Jane’s nieces – the set piece event of our Italy trip – followed sharp on the heels of our family holiday near Orvieto in Italy. We travelled south to Rome and dropped off First Grandchild and his parents with a couple of goodbye sniffles and sobs. We then made our way to our Airbnb in central Rome to grab a bite to eat and change into our wedding garb.

The formal element of the wedding was held in the City Hall in the heart of Rome and adjoining the Piazza Del Campidoglio. We gathered in a rather sumptuous room decorated in a deep red with several big flags and banners. It was an impressive backdrop to a lovely bi-lingual ceremony in which Italian law set out the obligations of both bride and groom with regard to, among other things, living arrangements, looking out for one another and bringing up children. There was much cheering, primarily and initially from the Italian groom’s side of the family, to underline the Italian-flavoured drama of the event.

^{Piazza Del Campidoglio (With The City Hall To The Right)}

The reception was on the outskirts of Rome in and around a lovely old house which was accommodating the now married couple their closest relatives. The food and drinks had been carefully selected by the groom and the local wines were various and, I thought, very good indeed. The buffet of antipasto was splendid. I probably overindulged given that this was followed by a lovely four-course meal but the spiced cold pork on offer was to die for and I didn’t hold back.

^{Arriving At The Wedding Reception}

The wedding speeches were delivered in Italian, English and Madagascan to reflect the roots of the main protagonists and their best men and women. Printed transcriptions of these helped us understand the humour and the emotions in these speeches and they all added value.

Then, just as the evening chill was starting to become noticeable – especially for the relatively lightly-clad women at the party – there was dancing. Following the initial wedding dance standards there was, as expected, an even more ebullient period of Madagascan music and dancing. This included the Madagascan equivalent of the Conga executed with much enthusiasm. The Madagascans in Jane’s wider family do love a good dance!

DJ’s took over and it was clear that, for some, it would be a long night of dance, song and drinking. We grabbed a cab just before midnight and before my alcohol unit count became innumerable. The whole day had been long but very memorable and enjoyable.

Next day, before our evening flight home, Jane and I did some walking and sightseeing around central Rome. We had last been here together in the 1980’s before we had children. I missed out on a subsequent visit with Jane due to pressure of work and a ‘persuasive’ boss so it was lovely to have another opportunity to see some of the iconic Roman buildings in great weather.

*^{The Trevi Fountain – One Of Rome’s Many Tourist Magnets}*

*^{The Parthenon (With Tourists Like Me!)}*

We wove through the massed crowds of tourists to see the Trevi Fountain and the Parthenon. We strolled further afield to towards Piazza Navona take in the atmosphere and revisit the fountains there. Unfortunately, these fountains, like many monuments in Rome, are currently under restoration in advance of the 2025 Rome Jubilee. We satisfied ourselves with other sights and appreciated them in the early Autumn Roman sunshine.

In the afternoon, I spent a couple of hours meandering around the Colosseum and the large area of various ruins and buildings to the immediate west. Much of this has been closed off to the non-paying public since I was last in Rome. I couldn’t bear the idea of the queuing in crowds and heat for tickets and entrance. Anyway, there was still more than enough to see for free before my knee started to complain and I needed a rest.

^{More Rome!}

Indeed, a highlight was entering a church – I failed to note which one – which had some lovely baroque music playing, slumping onto a pew and relaxing to the point of a brief doze. Bathed in all the memories of the wedding and the last week with the family, I felt chilled out and content.

*^{The Church Where I Dozed – Beautiful and Restful}*

With that, I made my way back to the Airbnb and then, with Jane, to our flight home. Even the train strike causing cancellation of trains to the airport couldn’t shake my feeling of well-being. It had been a very good week indeed.

Family Holiday In Italy

September 22, 2024 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Jane and I, our three sons, their wives/fiancées and our two grandchildren all made our way to a rather splendid villa in Italy for what turned out to be a wonderful holiday; all that I had hoped for and more.

*^{The Dramatic First View Of Our Holiday Villa As We Arrived}*

Getting everyone together for a family holiday for the first time like that was a feat of flexibility on the part of those, unlike me, who are still managing careers. It also involved precise scheduling and effective logistics including three hire cars, enterprising use of car boot space, and multiple airports and pick up points. I felt very privileged and lucky that we could manage it.

We stayed in a villa near Lake Bolsena, about 90 minutes north of Rome (where, at the end of the holiday, Jane and I, plus Youngest Son and fiancée, went to the wedding of one of Jane’s nieces). The villa was in a very rural, rather remote setting overlooking an ancient volcanic caldera and Lake Bolsena within that. It was an elegant, comfortable and well-equipped villa. Importantly, for the relative youngsters and, especially, the grandchildren, it had a substantial swimming pool.

*^{The Evening View From Our Terrace With Lake Bolsena In The Distance}*

We had every breakfast and evening meal at the villa. The group included excellent cooks and baristas plus willing clearer-uppers afterwards. I barely got a look in on either aspect but took responsibility for the recycling and most of the considerable waste disposal. Despite the local market and supermarkets being a little disappointing we ate extremely well and the bottles and cans recycling bins were repeatedly overflowing.

*^{Catching Stray Wildlife In The Pool}*

Orvieto was about an hour’s drive away and is perched on the top of a prehistoric volcanic plug. We had been there when our children were very young but while memories fade, of course, the key visitor sites were unchanged. Given we visited the city just out of prime tourist season this time, the crowds felt substantial. However, as ever, a few yards away from the main tourist routes, the streets were quiet and picturesque.

*^{Quiet Orvieto Square In Front Of The Church of Sant Andrea And A 12-sided Tower}*

After a very good lunch with the grandchildren and their parents, Jane and I left the group to visit Orvieto Cathedral which dominates the city and which can be seen from many miles away. The façade is wonderfully preserved and impressive. The other walls are also memorable – both inside and out – since they, and the internal columns supporting the roof, are unusually, horizontally striped with alternate layers of basalt and travertine. It was great to be able to visit and remember it again.

We visited a few of the smaller towns around Lake Bolsena. Now edging beyond the tourist season, some of these reflected what we have read about small rural Mediterranean villages gradually emptying out and becoming inactive backwaters. Our closest town was Grotte Di Castro. It is beautifully (but seemingly precariously) situated on a high ridge; of course, these hill-top towns are two-a-penny in much of Italy but even so it seemed surprisingly quiet and there were a lot of ‘For Sale’ signs.

Montefiascone on the opposite side of Lake Bolsena was bigger and busier. It too had wonderful hill top vistas and inviting alleys and cobbled streets. Their steps and sharp inclines challenged my currently dodgy left knee but I think the exercise did it good. While in the town, we were lucky to avoid the storms that seemed to be gathering all around us and, having failed – not for the first time – to find a restaurant both open and selling pizza before sundown, we headed back to our villa via Bolsena.

*^{Stormy Weather Over Montefiascone With Views Of Lake Bolsena and Cattedrale Di Santa Margherita}*

The town of Bolsena was much closer to our villa and did offer takeaway pizza during the day. We sampled that with First Grandchild (FG) in mind couple of times since he had said a few weeks before that pizza was what he was looking forward to most about the holiday. In the end, I think we were more concerned about tracking down pizza than he was.

Bolsena is another attractive town perched on a volcanic outcrop. Several of us had a good lunch in a restaurant adjacent to the lake. While FG played with a new remote-control toy, several of us took turns to take very pleasant strolls down a street lined with huge plane trees and up through its pedestrianised alleys to the castle and main church. From the top of the town there were broad views of the Lake Bolsena, its islands and the surrounding ridges. Second Grandchild (SG) was entertainable, calm and happy (as usual), FG had his new toy, and we all had a relaxed time in the town.

Lake Bolsena is the largest volcanic lake in Europe and there was volcanic activity within it as little as 2,000 years ago. With it being so close to our villa, a swim in its waters was on the holiday agenda for many (but not me; I really don’t like getting wet!) SG and his Dad also missed out because it was nap-time but the rest of the group had a boisterous time in the water. FG loved the water and all the splashing with his Granny, Mum, Dad, aunts and uncles. I took charge of capturing the action on camera with the big sky and gorgeous landscape around the lake in the background.

*^{Frolics In Lake Bolsena Under A Lovely Blue Sky}*

Much more swimming, splashing and fun and games were done at our villa. It was lovely to see both grandchildren ignoring the coolness of the water and just loving every moment in it. I also loved the opportunity to take both of them around the villa on little walks. FG is old enough now to appreciate nature and we had lots of lizards, millipedes and ants to observe and blackberries to eat on our ‘adventures’ (as he called them).

And then it was time for us to leave all this fun and conviviality. It had been so good to see everyone enjoy the holiday with its mix of group and separate activity, the games, the food and drink and the diverse chat. I hope we can repeat the model again but practicalities may intervene to prevent that so, for now, I am just going to continue to soak up the happy memories.

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