I’m off tomorrow to drive to the UK to visit friends and family, delivery my daughter and her friend to a musical theatre camp and go back to old haunts. I’ll be offline for a few days but hope to come back with some photos, stories and memories to share with you.

I’m visiting one of the least populated and most beautiful parts of England. It’s also – mainly thanks to the terrible weather – somewhere where tourists are a rare breed. I always find it as wild and untamed as ever  when I go back. There are small changes, but basically it is untouched. Where my roots are, going back hundreds of years. A land of castles and cathedrals, fierce border clashes, shipwrecks and sailors. Small sandstone houses built to withstand the worst of weathers, empty and bleak moorlands, miles and miles of empty beaches covered in fine golden sand, fishing boats and kipper smokeries.

I’m always filled with hugely conflicting feelings when I go back. It’s my home and yet it isn’t. I live in Switzerland and that is in all probability where I will stay. It feels like home too. But Northumbria is where my deepest roots are, it’s where I come from, where I can trace my family back for generations. It will feel good to be back…for a few days at least. To touch base and remember who I am.

See you in a few days,

Helen

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 at 8:46 am and is filed under Places, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.