Next time we’ll walk across the causeway that appears at low tide and visit the castle and the gardens!
St Michaels Mount
Author: Kate Wilson
Last night
Sorting through piles of things, losing the keys for the third time today, tidying corners that could be ignored, drawing a quick sketch of Blue’s sleeping head, eating a last take away curry with friends, packing up a cardboard box with Earl Grey and marmalade to send by courier, wondering why yet again we didn’t have time to go across to St Michaels Mount, thinking about going to bed at 9pm and suddenly finding it’s midnight…….Feeling more peaceful and trusting it will all work out in the end.
A Few Weeks in Lamorna
It’s not all been vets and impossible lists of things to do.
There have been many happy days in Lamorna.
So many sunny days too – living in a place where you can’t rely on the weather it feels like a gift every day when you wake to blue sky and sunshine and birdsong.
A line of collies in the field.
Waiting for the ball
Building an inipi for a sweat lodge that we did on the night of the Spring equinox. From outside it looks small but when covered with rugs and blankets (and dog towels as we ran out of stuff to use) it transformed into a magical cave with plenty of room inside for up to 8 people. But in the end there were the two of us.
The bonfire that heated up the stones to put inside the inipi.
A daytime bonfire.
Clearing an alleyway of light through the trees I planted over ten years ago. It’s so therapeutic to burn a big mountain of brambles and twigs. The bigger branches were cut up and stored for firewood.
In the midst of so many unanswered questions it has been wonderful to be outside, cutting and chopping the wood and brambles and after a few hours of work – seeing a result.
It really begins to look and feel like a wood.
Toothless in Lamorna
What a relief! Blue and Mazey safely back home minus a total of 12 teeth. Soft food, a warm fire and a long sleep will hopefully help them forget the traumas of cages, injections and abandonment in the vets.
Tomorrow it is my turn! Far less traumatic but I have to visit the hospital for yet another consultation with the urologist about my kidney stones. I mention this here as it is one of several bureaucratic frustrations that I can’t seem to break past. Catalunya widely advertises that every resident is entitled to a Health Card – a Tarjeta Sanetaria which allows free access to all medical care just as in the UK – but for some reason this does not apply to British Nationals. I am officially resident in Granollers (empadronated) but I don’t have a Social Security number so apparently I can’t have a Health card unless I give up my right to use the National Health Service in the UK. But I spend quite a a bit of time in Cornwall each year so I don’t want to lose my entitlement to treatment here. Especially because of a history with kidney stones which have a tendency to creep up on me and suddenly go BOO!
I have a friend in Italy who is registered both there and in Cornwall, I know others from the EU who have children so are automatically given their own card, and everyone in my Catalan class have cards even though they are not working, but I can’t get one. So, when I come back here I have to go for X Rays and blood tests and hospital visits which will only lead to more appointments and more flights between Barcelona and Bristol.
Hopefully tomorrow will give me the all clear and I can shelve the problem for another few months.
Meanwhile, the sun is shining and both Blue and Mazey are taking comfort from lying in the warmth.
The First Day of Spring
Lamorna is famous for daffodils. Early ones, late ones, yellow and creamy ones. Small meadows are full of them and a lovely path edged with them, winds back from the coast taking you past the granite quarries and down to the stream. There are always places to buy a bunch with an honest box for money. Friends from Barcelona were amazed that here in Cornwall you are trusted to leave your money in a tin by the side of the road. I suppose sometimes people steal it but it’s not common and I like that feeling of being presumed to be honest, unlike in some shops in Granollers where you must leave your bag at the door in case you get a sudden desire to shoplifter.
What luck to be here in Spring, with time to think about future plans and to let go of the stresses and strains of the past months. I still don’t have a clear idea of how I will resolve the split I feel between two homes but I feel more trusting that the answer will come by itself. We will find the right path.
The end of my time here is fast approaching and I am dreading the day of goodbyes with my dogs while trying to savour every moment that remains. Tomorrow I go to two different vets with two different pets. Both Blue my black collie and Mazey my black cat need to have teeth extracted urgently so it will be an anxious day of waiting and worrying. Then hopefully a happy and painfree homecoming
