The Ink-Pot and the Palette

The center of my recent trip to the United Kingdom turned out to be the four days I spent at Ashwhin Retreat on Shapinsay.

I had no particular agenda for such a retreat; I just felt drawn to it in a profligate, "what the hell" kind of way made possible only by a windfall (in this case, the sale of my car).

( Ashwhin on Shapinsay )

So, you're stuck in a very high-priced and yet not-that-nice hotel room near Heathrow waiting to begin your UK adventure, and it's 8:00 p.m. by the local clock but noon by your inner clock and you haven't slept--not realy--in well over 30 hours.

What do you do?

You pay many many dollars for the "wireless internet service throughout the hotel" that was the reason you chose the damn place to begin with thinking it was actually included in the price of the room (silly you), then log on to LJ for the first time in weeks and weeks, and say hi to everyone.

Tomorrow my good pal roseambr and I get a train to the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, up near the Scottish border, and begin a 61-mile walk that will take us along the North Sea coastline to Holy Island (home of the Lindisfarne Gospels) and through any number of charming villages and past I forget how many castles.

roseambr has never been in this part of the world before, so I'm looking forward to seeing it through her eyes, as it were. So far, it's just been airport, taxi, and hotel, which, apart from the accents and the whole driving on the left thing, are pretty much the same everywhere.

Photos and commentary to follow as internet access in said charming villages allows.

Then: Edinburgh! And kispexi2!