First Blog – phew! And so many directions in which to go. I could come over all sort of philosophical or maybe be a bit ‘preachey’? I could try to guess what you, my small audience, might want to read about and write something upon those lines or I could just get on with the writing and see what comes out. I could go big world and tell you what I think about the topics of our time – race; trans stuff; covid; politics; global warming; The Future – and perhaps I’ll get round to saying something on all those subjects sometime. It’s good to have a view I think, and certainly one that can be modified by a cogent argument. On the other hand I could just hunker down and scribble words entirely self indulgent and transient; stuff without value or relevance in the real world. I can pontificate a little but about nothing too contentious. And mostly write about ‘proper’ stuff like food and friendship and sharing memories and going on about ‘the good old days’.

These photos recall, for me, more recent times gone by, but also resonate across the years to other, earlier, eras: here’s Tam playing his banjo again – after 50 or more years of it lying in its tattered case, unloved and abandoned; this image of two French barges always triggers so many recollections of our life in France. And here’s another ‘bargee’ memory: this time of our own beloved ‘Friesland’ evoking countless recollections of dinners in the wheelhouse on summer evenings. Of course I’ll recall, and write about, those times but I don’t want this blog to be simply about looking backwards, containing only reminiscences. There is a future – things to plan for – stuff to do. Right now though, perhaps looking too far forward is not such a great idea. I’ll aim, mostly, to stay in the here and now; to find a patch of present on which to set out my current pre-occupations.

Fingers and toes crossed, we are off to France in a few days so I’ll have lots to tell you about that. I’m to be a judge at the Concours du Vins in Macon later in the month. I’ll be appraising white wines from the Rhone valley and should you see a bottle in your supermarket later this year bearing that all important gold, silver or bronze medal on the label , dospare a thought for the hard-work involved tasting and evaluating the winners! Sounds like we have the subject for my next blog. In the meantime spring seems to be getting underway and I’m off to start packing my bags and, hopefully, will soon be writing to you all from our Burgundy ‘hovel’.