Home (proper)

As it was all sparkly and snowy today I decided to pop back and see my dad, he still lives in the same quiet sleepy little village I called "home" for many many years. Went to school there, got dragged to church there.. fell out of a tree and bust my collar bone there trying to get a good chestnut for conkers! You know how it is!

Anyway, I dont think I can leave England anymore. I whinged and whined for such a long time, and everytime I'm in Seattle I always dream about living there, but a few things have happened over the last couple of days. Firstly, I watched a program called "The Natural History of Britain", presented by one of our mad gardening experts Alan Titchmarsh (yes, real name). It showed everything from the creation of the British Isles to some of the really stunning things here. I said once in Washington that I was amazed that you could go from Alpine mountains to desert in a few hours drive (and I still am).. Britain seems to have the same. In winter the snow capped Scottish highlands, with vast lochs and lakes amidst them, straight down to the Scilly Isles off the coast of Cornwall, with their white sand beaches, green blue carribean style oceans, and warm breezes. I learned we have 8000 year old drowned forests from when there was land there instead of the English Channel, that we have more varieties of rock than any other country in Europe, that we're home to a whole heap of animals and birds I never knew about. I also learned that even though the country is only 700 miles from top to bottom, we have 11,000 miles of coast line. 50% of the worlds Grey Seal population is here, along with 50% of all the worlds Bluebells are growing in English woodland. Oh and over 6,000 islands make up the British Isles! The fact we had an empire was down to the vast coal reserves here, unusually high for a country this small, and all because 15 million years ago, Britain was under a rain forest! Basically by the end of the program I was dripping with national pride, almost a tear in one eye and a bizarre feeling I should have been singing 'Rule Britannia' quite loudly for no reason!

Second thing that happened is that, like I said at the beginning of the post, I went home. It's funny being away from a place and looking back with fresh eyes. My god that village is beautiful, and I really miss it now.. all covered in a sprinkling of snow.. the village green all white, the churchyard blanketed and undisturbed, snow and ice hanging from the thatch on the houses.. I love home, I love England and I dont think I can bring myself to leave anymore...

Being home reminded me how beautiful, and old the place I grew up in is, and why now I really want to move back. One day I'll bring up my own terrible family in a place like this. At least I hope so. "Middle England", the concept of english countryside with cricket on the green, and the village pub, it's not dead, it's not dying, we just dont look for it anymore. We move to cities to be practical... the villages are still there, and the people are still hanging around in the pub and playing cricket in summer - we just stopped taking part. Anyway, im done with the romance see the pictures of the village for yourself.. oh and yes, thats the tree up there, the one I fell out of.