The Beauty of Bath
This morning Anadi and I went for a run along the canal in Bath...
We had woken in Monkton Combe to a beautiful bright morning... The sun was rising above the hills, between the trees, and at 7am it was warm enough to run wearing shorts...
Up the hill past primroses and daffodils and snowdrops, we ran... Britain bursting into spring; and down the other side to Widcombe where we joined the canal path. This was the route I took when I lived here thirty years ago, and I hadn't realised that there was a far quicker, more direct and flatter way from where we are staying!
And so we ran along the canal, the canal I know so well...
And it was just the same; still brown water with canal boats lined up nose to tail... The lock gates, the dripping bridges, tip toeing through the splashy bits; the path widening and stretching on for mile after mile; flat and surrounded by Bath's beauty, it's landscape, the sandy grey stone houses, and today the bright sun filtering through the hazy morn
In fact I found all of Bath to be the same...
Later after a delicious breakfast, we went into town and it seemed to me to be the same as it did all those years ago...
Prema, a Hari Krishna monk who we chatted to on the main street about the Krishna scheme to feed the homeless, reminded us that it is a heritage site... This means that everything must stay the same, even changes and improvements are fashioned to look the same...
As we left, he gave us a gift of some wonderful 'cinnamon spice' incense, his company is called Sacred Elephant.
I like this name...
My imaginary tatoo - in other words, the tatoo I would have if I had one - is an elephant... I like the animal totem message it brings...
'You already have all the tools you need to accomplish what you desire. Just go for it'
And so I received this message today from Prema's incense gift...
We had lunch earlier in 'Blue Quails Deli'...
I had taken Anadi to Pultney Bridge to show him the weir and listen to its music, its rushing sound, and the Deli nearby, which is owned by Glenda and Peter Botes called us in...
Anadi said that the sandwich he chose, full of roasted peppers, sundried tomatoes and chorizo, was the best sandwich of his whole life... I had been looking forward to cake and coffee for elevenses, and so even though it was nearly 1.30pm by the time we stopped to eat, I was still in that mode, and so enjoyed the most delicious piece of almond and lemon cake with coffee...
Glenda and Peter have run restaurants and hotels all around the world, we resolved to stay in touch and meet in far flung places for food, therapy and yoga...!
And then we were gone, the door clanging shut, but with this promise of re connecting somehow, somewhere....
The planet our home... Making new friends as we journey.
