welsh hills again

There is no holding us now!  Last week the campervan took us to Scotland.   We have always loved Scotland and Ian in particular has an attachment to walking Scottish hills which for him is not quite replicated anywhere else.  We stayed with friends who have some really great self catering accommodation at  Bonawe House  in Taynuilt near Oban.  A self catering apartment and evenings round the fire pit sorted out the Covid regulations.  It is a very beautiful place.  Thank you so much to Damon and Renate for your wonderful hospitality and kindness. We took the foot passenger ferry from near Oban to the island of Kerrera and walked out to Gylen Castle.  The castle was built by the Macdougall clan in 1582 but was occupied only until 1647 when it was besieged and burned out by the Covenanters.  It seems a very short time for such a beautifully built and designed place to be lived in.  There has been considerable renovation work in recent years and it is easy to see how people lived.  We fou

Sometimes having a campervan is a wonderful thing.  So here is why: we are allowed over the border into England now, we are allowed to travel within England and to spend time in gardens with another household.  We are not yet allowed to stay overnight in other people's houses but the great thing about a campervan is that you bring your own bedroom with you.  So a week last Friday we set off for Devon to spend time with younger son and his family and then with my sister and her husband.  Devon!  That is the furthest we have been in months!  It is a familiar drive down the M6 and M5, round about a six hour journey including a stop.  A few years ago when my father was alive we did this journey every week.  Doing it again now, especially after a long period of staying home, it seems astonishing that we managed it.  It felt like a long way.  But it also felt like a glorious way.  The sky was a brilliant blue as we drove and the trees and fields were the brilliant, vivid green of early M