Travel by train

Sunday 27th September, 2020

A day of travel. After a lovely breakfast of scrambled egg (eggs from the two hens I have tended) and bacon plus home made damson and crab apple jelly on toast, I was driven to Rugby Station. Masks obligatory, hostess handed over a tube of antiseptic gel and with essential confirmed seat reservations all trains were on time. Glorious sunny day the whole way. Beautiful countryside to Crewe where a change of trains. Not many travellers. Crewe to Edinburgh via Carlisle and still few passengers and more stunning countryside in the sunshine. I had a table to myself. An enormous lunch of bread rolls, oozing Camembert cheese, chorizo and bottle water with pork pies, humus, tomatoes, peppered salami and pitta bread left in the picnic basket. Luggage, three pieces, was heavy as I was carrying ten jars of my home made jellies. Over an hour to wait at Edinburgh, again with few people about. 

The Edinburgh to Leuchars train quite full as students for St. Andrews University aboard. Again the beauty of Scotland hit me as we travelled first through the Borders from Carlisle and then across the Forth of Firth and in to Fife. It felt so open and empty and stark and hard yet gracious and rugged. 

Getting out at Leuchars I noted the comparative coldness, perhaps 5 degrees colder than Warwickshire. Yet again the fresh air. On again to a house in the middle of empty landscape, the cut corn fields of gold, the flocks of Canade geese rummaging those fields, a pair of swans with eight cygnets next the Tay and the silence. I left silence at the Canal and I have come back to silence in Fife. In both places the stillness and quiet are palpable. The travelling makes me appreciate the calm and earthy ambience of the countryside. 

Inbetween the two places I noticed the movement, the people, the distractions of modern life from advertisements to Covid notices to iPhones, iPads and the multitudes of machines. Coffee shops open but little else as a Sunday. 

I am going to have a short lie down after a perusal of the glorious garden, then a hot bath followed by supper in pyjamas and dressing gown. Travel is exciting but wearisome also. It gives one the opportunity to see new places and sights, to meet new peoples and experience new customs etc but it also takes away from the power of stability, silence and stillness.....we are privileged to have the opportunity for both.