England 1:

Now back in England and so nice to stop! I flew up to Birmingham on Monday and am with Ali and Steve until I come home at the end of the month. They live in this lovely little village in Derbyshire. English chocolate box, complete with a close, brook and lovely old trees. The English countryside is so soft and green after the barren brown of Morocco. Today we drove up to Holywell in North Wales to see Ali's 91 year old mother. After coffee with her, we went to see Ali's brother Malcolm and we all went for a pub lunch. Malcolm lives in this stunning house in a lovely lakeside location, complete with gym and swimming pool(Southfork). It would make a fantastic up- market wedding venue or conference centre. The weather was a bit grey, but 'tis the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness', if my poetic memory is correct! We are going up to Yorkshire next week and to Poole in my final week.