Stories from my Life
And then, there came the fateful day I picked up a copy of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small…
I was extremely expectant about my first spring in North Yorkshire because I couldn’t wait to take pictures of the lambs.
If you look it up on Wikipedia as my husband and I did on our first visit, you’ll find the abbey has a very storied beginning: it was founded by a group of monks who were kicked out of the Benedictine House of St. Mary’s Abbey in York after a riot there.
When I look up and see the Eiffel Tower, one of the most iconic landmarks in the world, I say inwardly every time, "I'm in Paris."
If you take the RER B just south of Paris in the month of April, you’ll discover the most amazing grove of cherry trees in Parc de Sceaux, planted in perfectly-formed French straight lines.
In September 2019 my family and I camped at a yurt in South Devon, which put us a short distance from a secluded beach called Seacombe Sands or Gara Rock Beach. I was blown away by the view of bright blue water and rocky beach when we parked the car and walked to the path beside Gara Rock Hotel. It was completely stunning.
Even with the rainy weather and the change of plans, we see a lot of wildlife. The full glory of the stunning scenery surrounding Resurrection Bay is hidden from us by the cloud cover, but the glimpses we do get are unforgettable.
No one could describe the European robin better than the woman who gave the world the personable robin within the pages of The Secret Garden. I recently discovered this little booklet Burnett wrote in answer to a letter asking if the robin in her novel was real. The short answer was yes! And during the uncertain days of April 2020, I had a robin, too.
As the winter months inched toward spring, I noticed the people around me keeping time with the season by the flowers that slowly appeared, and they taught me to do the same. In February I saw my first snowdrop. By March the crocuses were popping up all golden and purple. The daffodils arrived in April, and the golden rapeseed fields were glowing in the sun by May. June brought buttercups and wild garlic, along with primroses in the hedges. I became so in tune with the rhythm of the flowers during my three years in North Yorkshire. But somehow, during that first spring, I missed out on hearing about the bluebells.