Much belated blog post
May. 27th, 2012 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gnommiBeen a long time, huh?
Well, I'm very glad to say that the B12 has now kicked in nicely and I am now living a more-or-less normal life with normal hours again. Work continues to be A Challenge TM, but at least I'm alive enough to deal with it.
ANYWAY! About a month or so ago, we spent some lovely days in Spreewald, a region of Brandenburg south-east of Berlin, close to the Polish border, which you can really feel. It's a gorgeous place: a biosphere reserve with unique forest/marsh terrain, fabulous cycle paths and more wildlife than you can shake a stick at. We saw storks, very large birds of prey, hares, snakes, diverse amphibians and peculiar, very friendly locals (Sorbs and Wends) in abundance. The pace of life is slow and stately, and a lot of the villages and homesteads in the area can only be reached by punt: no roads, only rivers. We stayed in a lovely little brewery, the Brauerei Brabben in Luebbenau. Lots and lots of pictures here.
I also managed to take advantage of some lovely weather to revisit a place where many happy childhood hours were spent: Farley Mount Country Park. This place has stunning views and a highly eccentric pyramidal monument (to a horse, that jumped, rider and all, into a 25ft deep chalk pit). The sound of skylarks warbling across oak-fringed canary-yellow mustard fields, which stretch to a hazy horizon of water... has to be one of the finer things in life. Album here.
I've also got back into reading again: have just finished W.Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale, a simultaneously affectionate, joyful, bitter and malicious book. I really, REALLY, love Maugham. I hate the sensation of loss when I finish any of his books.
Well, I'm very glad to say that the B12 has now kicked in nicely and I am now living a more-or-less normal life with normal hours again. Work continues to be A Challenge TM, but at least I'm alive enough to deal with it.
ANYWAY! About a month or so ago, we spent some lovely days in Spreewald, a region of Brandenburg south-east of Berlin, close to the Polish border, which you can really feel. It's a gorgeous place: a biosphere reserve with unique forest/marsh terrain, fabulous cycle paths and more wildlife than you can shake a stick at. We saw storks, very large birds of prey, hares, snakes, diverse amphibians and peculiar, very friendly locals (Sorbs and Wends) in abundance. The pace of life is slow and stately, and a lot of the villages and homesteads in the area can only be reached by punt: no roads, only rivers. We stayed in a lovely little brewery, the Brauerei Brabben in Luebbenau. Lots and lots of pictures here.
I also managed to take advantage of some lovely weather to revisit a place where many happy childhood hours were spent: Farley Mount Country Park. This place has stunning views and a highly eccentric pyramidal monument (to a horse, that jumped, rider and all, into a 25ft deep chalk pit). The sound of skylarks warbling across oak-fringed canary-yellow mustard fields, which stretch to a hazy horizon of water... has to be one of the finer things in life. Album here.
I've also got back into reading again: have just finished W.Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale, a simultaneously affectionate, joyful, bitter and malicious book. I really, REALLY, love Maugham. I hate the sensation of loss when I finish any of his books.