At last! In 2022, we went abroad again after COVID, having had just a couple of local hotel breaks. For my daughter’s 30th in May, we all went to Lake Maggiore in Italy staying for a few days at the beautiful Hotel Splendid in Baveno. We experienced only minor delays with our flights between Gatwick and Milan Malpensa. We enjoyed hot sunny weather mixed with impressive thunderstorms, which rolled out of the Alps to the north. In July we spent a week in Madeira where we walked a levada and watched dolphins. We almost didn‘t make it though as landings there are difficult due to crosswinds and diversions are common.
More recently, we went via Zurich in Switzerland and rode on the Glacier and Bernina Express trains through the Alps ending up in St. Moritz and then Como. On Lake Como the sea planes were taking off and landing right in front of our hotel, the Villa Flori. Back home, we finally managed to make our woods accessible and dredged the pond so that area is now much enjoyed by the local owls, deer and heron. Plus, I still have three gallons of honey to jar up from my bees. It‘s been a busy year and it’s rushed by!”