Like the rest of us, the birds have been enjoying the gloriously sunny weather we’re having and DH has been having fun with his new video camera trying to capture some of them in motion. At the moment we only see our faithful year-round inhabitants, but soon now the summer visitors will begin to arrive and we will be able once again to marvel at their breathtaking aerobatics.
Yes, the migration season is upon us again and what applies to the birds is also true of the Transit household. Bags are being packed, the campervan given its spring-cleaning and in a couple of days we will be once more on the road north.
The difference this time is that en route we shall be spending a couple of days in Southport for a family get-together to celebrate DH’s mother’s birthday. This will be great fun and in addition gives me my very first chance to meet a blogger in the flesh. The Broad lives in Southport and has kindly invited us to call in for a cuppa and a chat while we’re there, a meeting we are both looking forward to with keen anticipation.
As if this weren’t enough excitement for two staid old-age pensioners on one trip, we have received a second invitation from a fellow-blogger. Sian has invited us to visit her on her small island while we’re in the far north of Scotland and we plan to do that before we finally head south again in early May.
It will be such fun to put faces to the names and vice-versa and to be able to talk about the things we have previously only written and read about. I can’t wait! For now though, it’s back to the preparation and the packing, so if you don’t see me about in the blogosphere for a little while, that’s the reason.
Image courtesy of the RSPB
Sometimes I think I enjoy the packing and preparation more than the actual trip. I suppose it is the anticipation of something new and better.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your trip!
Thanks, Rubye. I've always loved the preparation and the travelling, as well as the time spent elsewhere. This is a journey we do twice a year, so it's becoming very familiar, but the countryside is so lovely that it never becomes stale.
DeleteHello Perpetua:
ReplyDeleteWhat excitement! And, when the virtual friends become real ones, what fun that will be.
Oh, we do not care for all the packing and planning that is required for these adventures, but seeing new places and experiencing new things is always life enhancing. Safe travelling and we look forward to adventurous tales on your return!!!
Hello Jane and Lance. yes, I'm really excited at the prospect and am so grateful to both The Broad and Sian for being the ones to suggest meeting up.
DeleteAs I said to Rubye, I love everything to do with travelling and the journey up through England and Scotland to the far north never palls. We always stay in the same place and we're already looking forward to seeing the friends we have made there and to exploring more of this wonderful area.
I love the idea that you will be meeting fellow bloggers. I got very excited when I heard that Ayak was meeting up with Annie from Back to Bodrum last week. I hope you all have a wonderful time, I'm sure you will. Give my best wishes to The Broad !
ReplyDeleteSo do I, Janice. I've read on other blogs like Ayak's about meeting up with fellow bloggers, but hadn't imagined I would ever do the same. Our daughter lives in Yorkshire, so who knows, perhaps one day we may manage to meet. :-) In the meantime I will certainly pass on your good wishes to The Broad.
DeleteYou're very welcome in Hebden Bridge anytime Perpetua, and of course, in Caunes too. J.
DeleteCaunes is rather a long way from Normandy, Janice, but Hebden Bridge is much more accessible. :-)
DeleteHow fun! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI think so too, Rosaria and certainly intend to. :-)
DeleteHow exciting to be able to meet fellow bloggers on your trip this time, Perpetua. I can feel your sense of anticipation for your trip and new adventures along an established route. How grand that is. Safe travel and merry memory making. Penny
ReplyDeleteThanks, Penny. Yes, I'm looking forward to it all very much indeed. We love Scotland, especially the wildness and beauty of the far north-west and our spring and autumn trips are precious. I'll be blogging when I'm there, so watch this space....
DeleteI will miss you, Perpetua, but know you'll have much to share upon your return. How lovely to meet fellow bloggers! What a special opportunity! Travel safely! Debra
ReplyDeleteThanks, Debra, but I'm glad to say you won't need to miss me for too long. :-) Once we're settled and unpacked I'll be able to pop in from time to time and catch up with everyone as well as posting myself. We'll be up there for over a month, so hopefully plenty to blog about.
DeleteI can sense your excitement about your upcoming journey! Be well and have fun and see you when you're back around!
ReplyDeleteThanks, penny. It's always fun to set off on these twice yearly trips north, but this time the prospect of meeting up with The Broad and Sian is adding a new dimension. See you when I arrive.....
DeleteHave a happy and safe journey to your next nesting-place and enjoy the change as well as the meetings to come.
ReplyDeleteStore up your adventures for us on your return please.
Blessings .
Ray, I love the thought of our nesting-places and shall immediately tell DH about it. :-) The beauty of going back to a the same place as we do is that each visit is a lovely mixture of familiar and new which I find very satisfying. As before I'll be blogging while I'm there - after all it rains quite a lot in Scotland.....
DeleteDo enjoy yourselves...as if you could do anything else in Scotland!
ReplyDeleteHow super to be meeting up with fellow bloggers, too!
We're in the bird books at the moment, having seen three of an unknown - to us - species in the big tree by the corral, so nothing will be done until they are run to earth.
I do like the idea of your nesting places....
Oh, we will, Fly, we always do. The meetings with bloggers is truly the icing on the cake this time. :-)
DeleteWhat fun to have seen not one but three unknown birds. Please do let us know when you've discovered their identities. As for the nesting places, DH and I are still grinning at the thought....
Dear Perpetua, . . . I so enjoyed how you started this posting with the migration of birds and a photo that drew me in and then you introduced your own migration. I'll miss your posting while you're so busy, but life often interrupts this blogging world. So I'll eagerly await your next posting.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to hear that you and Broad will be meeting. I'd so like to meet both of you. This blogging world of friends has come as a surprise to me. When I first started blogging at the end of last May, I never realized how I'd come to enjoy the blogs of so many interesting women and men. All of you have introduced me to new places and ideas and events. I feel blessed. Peace.
Glad you enjoyed it, Dee. :-) We certainly feel like migrating birds, as out trips to Scotland are always in the spring and autumn migration seasons. However, once we arrive we will be fixed there for a few weeks, so blogging will be part of life there too, as it was on our trips last year.
DeleteDee, the friendships made through blogging have surprised me also, as they are very real and I truly hadn't expected that. There are so many bloggers I would love to meet, including my transatlantic friends, and I'm very lucky to be able to look forward to meeting two this trip.
How wonderful to be able to meet up with people whose blogs you read and have enjoyed. And your trip sounds wonderful...wish it were me!
ReplyDeleteHave fun and a wonderful time...look forward to hearing all about your adventures when you return. Smiles - A.
Astrid, when I started blogging I could never have imagined that I would ever meet another blogger face to face and now I will be meeting two! The trips are part of this roving retirement mentioned at the head of my blog and so far it's working well for us. We'll be too old for it one day, but for now we do enjoy our travelling, thanks. And it provides plenty to blog about.... :-)
DeleteOh, this is such a lot of fun. There is so much more to blogging than I realised. I like the way you have linked the arrival of our migratory birds to your trip up north, and look forward to seeing your blog whilst you are away. Have a good trip and take care.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rosemary. You sound just like me, as I continue to discover just how versatile and rewarding blogging can be. :-) It's endlessly fascinating and I bless the day I took the plunge and started my blog. I love the ability to capture experience and memories and share them with others, as I now do wherever I am.
DeleteHappy travels...and safe.
ReplyDeleteThanks, EF. We're tortoises rather than hares on the road, so will take care. :-)
DeleteHave fun! I spotted the first hoopoes in the garden today, so that's the danger of frost gone. I have never met anyone whose blog I follow - i don't get out much.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jon, I plan to. :-) Oh, hoopoes sound so wonderfully exotic. I do hope the frost acknowledges their return. Meeting a blogger face to face will be a first for me, so don't give up hope....
DeleteWill miss you while you're away - but in 3 weeks time we'll be about a couple of hundred miles (I suppose - my ideas of diatance in Scotland are a bit hazy!) south of you on Mull, and we're really looking forward to getting up there. Hoping to see lots of wildlife - otters, Sea & Golden eagles, Red Deer, etc. Will be asking for a 'bubble of protection' for you for your travels, and for some half-way decent weather. Still not sure whether to take the caravan or not - if not, will need to find stopping off places en route, as we can't do the lot in one day as we're taking the dogs (well, they're our excuse anyway!) Have a lovely time of 're-creation' and peace. Pax et bonum.
ReplyDeleteA couple of hundred is spot on, Halva, but they are very slow miles. :-) I do hope this gorgeous weather lasts for your trip and that you see lots of wildlife. I was told when we visited Mull that spring was the best time to go. Safe journey and see you in May. Pxx
DeletePerpetua, we are really looking forward to that cuppa on Wednesday -- and aren't we blessed with the weather? Gosh, we might even be able to have our tea party in the garden.
ReplyDeleteHave to say, though, packing is not my favourite thing at all! I can never make up my mind what clothes to take and how many pairs of shoes. It usually takes me a week to figure it all out and then it's constant mind changing!
See you soon!
Tomorrow, in fact, Broad! The forecast is for clear and sunny, but not as warm, so we may need to keep our coats on in the garden. :-)
DeletePacking isn't too difficult when you have as few clothes and shoes as I do. I hate clothes buying and shoe buying even more, so tend to have a few favourites and wear them out before I buy more. Saves all this indecision.... ;-)
Greetings Perpetua, from one blogger you have met face-to-face many times :-)
ReplyDeleteSybille & I are also migrating late this coming Thursday evening, as we're flying to the UK in order to join my eldest sister & her husband & celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary on Saturday 31st March, exactly 50 years on from the day of their wedding on 31st March 1962. I hope the weather will be kind to them and us as the venue for the party overlooks the beach at Bournemouth. I shall blog about our travels in due course, just as I shall enjoy reading about yours.
Best wishes & prayers for a safe journey to the wilds of the north of Scotland.
Ah, but we knew each other long before either of us started to blog, Ricky. :-) I remember you telling me as we drove to the airport last year that you were coming to the UK for this celebration. Not sure of the weather forecast for the weekend itself, but it's meant to be sunny for the next 3 days so fingers crossed it last a bit longer. Safe journey and I look forward to the post about the party. :-)
DeleteThe wonderful thing about meeting up with fellow bloggers is that you already know so much about each other through your blogs. It saves all those ice-breaking moments I think.
ReplyDeleteSafe journey Perpetua...lots of love x
Do you know, that really hadn't occurred to me, Ayak, but you're quite right. So many preliminaries not needed. Ooo, it sounds even more fun now. :-) Safe journey to you too when it's time for your trip to England. Pxxx
DeleteHuh, TYPICAL, we are slowly collecting ourselves together for the first part of our permanent move to mid-Wales (as The Husband likes to croon; I love Powys in the Springtime...) my Big Sis is packing to leave it. Never mnd. We'll make it up in May. PolkaDot is planning to join us all (with her DH, of course) so we can have a clan-gathering when you get back. The Husbands can hide somewhere while we sisters put the world to rights...
ReplyDeleteI know, I know..... Appalling timing on my part, Baby Sis, but just think, by the time we get back, you'll be all safely installed and starting to enjoy life in beautiful Mid-Wales. We moved back in spring when I retired (5 years ago now!!) and it's the perfect time to begin a new stage of life. This is going to be one good clan-gathering. :-))
DeleteEnjoy your trek north. Scotland is always great. [we're up in Edinburgh ned of next month for a brief visit]
ReplyDeleteHave fun meeting your fellow bloggers; we're meeting two this summer and looking forward to putting faces to posts as it were :-).
Please pass on regards to Broad and have a safe journey!
Thanks, Niall and Antoinette. We always love our trips to Scotland and I'm sure yours will be just as enjoyable. This meeting fellow-bloggers thing sounds such fun. I'm looking forward to it enormously and will certainly pass on your greeting to Broad. Enjoy your own meetings this summer - this could become a habit. :-)
DeleteHow exciting to be on the move, especially at this time of year, when you are at one with the natural world in your migration! And how exciting to be meeting other bloggers in real life too. Sian was kind enough to allow my family to descend on beautiful Graemsay for one very happy day in our holiday in Orkney the year before last. Hope you have just as lovely a time, and please give her our regards. Ayak is quite right: when you meet a fellow blogger, you already know the most important thing about each other, i.e. that you have a sympathetic meeting of minds.
ReplyDeleteTalking of such meetings, we will miss you as you travel up, but will probably be here when you head south again in early May. Should you fancy a lunch/ tea stop or whatever, please let me know! You will probably almost be passing our door anyway (my brother uses us as a loo stop!) and it would be so nice to meet up one of these days.
Safe journey meanwhile, and I look forward to your posts from the far north.
It certainly is, DB. I'm just taking a rest after having packed almost everything into the van - a pleasant task in itself in this glorious weather. I'm looking forward so much to meeting Broad and then to our trip across to Sian on Graemsay. I've never been to the Orkneys, and visiting when you're going to meet someone you already know through her blog is something special, as you know.
DeleteThank you so much for your kind invitation and we would love to take you up on it sometime, even if we can't manage it on this trip. It will depend on whether we stay overnight with friends near Fort William on our way back. If we do, we won't be coming back down the A9, but on the A82 past Loch Lomond. But we always go north on the A9.
I'll be in touch closer to the time when we know better what our homeward plans are.
Happy travels, Perpetua! And how exciting that you and The Broad are able to get together for tea! How I would love to join you two -- but alas! I hope you have an absolutely lovely time!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathy. I love this journey as the scenery in the Highlands of Scotland is so magnificent. Getting to meet The Broad is a wonderful bonus and I can foresee a LOT of talking ahead. :-) It's a shame some of us are so very far apart.....
DeleteIsn't this just one of the greatest joys in life? Blogging opens up so many doors that we otherwise did not even know about and to meet up with our blog friends is such a thrill.
ReplyDeleteHave a great trip !!
And it's a new joy for me, Jean. I have friends and relatives who have started to blog, but this will be the first time I meet people whom I have only got to know through their blogs. As you say, blogging leads to things we could never have imagined before we started....
DeleteHave a wonderful time! Bloggy friends - bloddies? - are such an unlooked for bonus, how marvellous that you get to meet two of yours for real :D
ReplyDeleteThanks, Annie. You just caught me before we packed up the computers. :-) Yes, what to call our blogging friends? Bloddies sounds fun and another friend calls us blogpals. Actually meeting is is just great. Watch this space.....
DeleteI have arrived back in Pembrokeshire this weekend and one of the first birds I saw was a wheatear. The puffins are back at Skomer too. Spring truly here.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it great to see them returning, Mark? Puffins everyone knows, but I'm afraid I had to google wheatears to remind myself what they look like. The swallows will be nesting in our barn and open garage by the time we get back to Wales. :-)
ReplyDeleteTrips are great! It is even better when one can meet a bloggy friend. I hope you’ll have a wonderful time and will take many pictures.
ReplyDeleteThis one certainly is, Vagabonde, and the weather was glorious all the way. We had a wonderful afternoon with The Broad en route and once the weather improves again the camera will be busy.
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