Category Archives: The UK

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A winter walk near Whitchurch, England

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This Sunday we had a birthday to celebrate.

It began with lunch in the Watership Down Inn. Golden fish and chips, or delicious roast beef with Yorkshire puddings as puffed up as clouds, followed by irresistible variations on icecream and cake. Then out we headed into the winter grey for a walk.

Mud, slimy as sludge, clung to our boots from start to finish, but we didn’t mind the sliding, and we took no notice of the weather as it came and went, wiping over us like a damp cloth. We were celebrating, and it was beautiful.

Freshly planted fields, covered in flint, stretched up the hill to one side, while a chalk stream ran through trees in the valley below. There were a few other walkers, and dogs, but, for most of the way, it was just us, and the bridges we crossed and the mills we passed.

There was a rope swing – two in our party pirouetted lopsidedly – but mostly we just wound on, talking, and talking, past the swans, the ducks, the snowdrops and the trout, to arrive back at the old silk mill in time for tea.

A good Sunday!

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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Postcard from Margate

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We’ve just spent the night in one of Margate’s oldest, now newest hotels – the Fort Road Hotel. Apparently Turner (the artist) would have known it when it was the Fort Castle Public House. We loved our room and the little blue booklet in it, packed with information. It talked about the hotel and the area, and the artists connected with the town, then had details on the furniture and art in each room. I’ve never seen that before. It really made us look and appreciate.

The next day we wandered along the seafront and around the town. The skies were grey to start and the cold wind never left, so we split our time between the outdoors, and the record stores and book shops, with a fair few brunch stops in between. The last of them was in the late afternoon. That was when the sun came out, and so did the walkers and the dogs. The shadows were beautiful.

Hope all well with you.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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So how’s the weather with you?

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It’s cold, in England.

The photograph above was taken on an early morning, in the middle of this week, just south of London. Leaves were trapped in frosted white, and the sunlight danced. It was beautiful. Proper winter cold. And dry, which was a relief after the days of rain we’ve had.

Then I came back to the centre of London. Today, Thursday, it is still cold, but I haven’t seen the delicate ice lines that fill the gardens and hedgerows.

Here, in the built world, the pavements hold a cold of their own, and the wind more slice, as it whips between and around the buildings in the City. There are fewer greens and browns, and less sky. There is more scaffolding, concrete, hard greys, and steep sides. It is only in the evening that it softens. Then the hard lines fade around bright office windows, and bars and restaurants beckon like burrows.

I suppose a cold city has its own kind of beauty, but it is the cold I am happiest about – happy that London and the south of England, can still do cold after the dry summer of 2022, with temperatures that hit over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

Here is a link to an article I found when typing 40 degrees Celsius into Google.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023