February - joining the dots 

Back from Cairo for a couple of nights, with throats seared by PM2.5 and good friends to meet, before heading off to Luxembourg, both destined for a carefully planned series of cheek by jowl body tests.

The careful plans of course don’t all go to plan, with our departure afternoon spent trudging on and off broken planes too many times and for too many hours, before giving up and enjoying an unexpected and unplanned weekend amongst the big city shoppers, the local art galleries and the Cabo Verde restaurants supping copious poncha to soothe the pharyngitis.

Back in London with one day remaining to repack and jump onto a Devon bound train, the storm damaged tracks freshly repaired along the Dawlish coast, the sky rampant with storm cloud remnants above a silver-grey sea.

The sun breaks through as we are warmly greeted  by our friends; the rain-washed garden fresh and invigorating, the swollen brook loudly babbling as it races toward the Dart. We explore between the showers, duck into the comfort of time worn pubs, wonder at the comfort of handmade shoes, linger in the colour of the Buckfast chapel, are braced by the winds that scurry across the beach. Long and deep the country air sleeps, long and weighty the all-morning breakfasts, slow walking along fields and river shores to enjoy what grows.

A few more days in London, more good friends for parties and dinners, days absorbed in iceberg and whale spotting trips around Newfoundland, and then off to Köln and Frankfurt; wood wrapped meals with family and more good friends in two very different cities only one ICE train hour apart.

We compare the architecture, the discordant and the excellent in Köln, the restrained and the svelte in Frankfurt. We wonder at diversity of urban form being responsible for an equal degree of pleasure as that enjoyed by diversity of character. We have evidence in the cities and the people we meet but again, we avoid conclusion.

The return to London finds a big curvaceous hole carved into our yard, early preparation for the new garden that will emerge slowly over the spring, providing simplicity and light and even more planting to surround our home. But that will arrive slowly and in April; in March we will leave again.

February 2026