©IBKimage2012

As many of you know I recently took a trip to Northern England for the purpose of hiking the Hadrian’s Wall Path. (See two previous blogs)  One of the unexpected delights was the quality and variety of food we were served at our various overnights along the way.  During our 9 days on the trail we stayed in the city, in a pub, a refurbished blacksmith shop, as well as a farm and an old manor of sorts. The trail is only about 30 miles south  of Scotland, so being that far north, it was light until almost  10:00 p.m. and again at 4:30 a.m. with the birds as my alarm clock.  I struggle to describe the “sounds of silence” and the range of colors in an English countryside in the spring.  So I won’t.

I’ll let you enjoy this image taken at a farm house where we had a delicious Sunday evening meal. I desire to have a garden like this and all that it promises, and yet the rest of the story is that  I was the guest who was blessed by someone else’s work from dawn to late night providing lodging, food and beauty for sight, mind, body and soul.  How divine.  In our noisy, rat race world, you do the same when you open your house and invite someone to sit at your table.

IBK