Today's posts

Today is May Day. Every year on May 1^st the choristers sing at dawn from the top of the tower in Magdalen College, Oxford, to welcome the coming of summer. Every year Morris men dance in the streets. But not today, I’m afraid. We are at home waging a long campaign against coronavirus. But the violets are still flowering in the hedgerows and the bluebells are flowering in the woods, unaffected by lockdown and social distancing.

This week the poem is ‘May 14^th on the Welsh border’.   This is a celebration of May though I am posting it two weeks before the date in the title. These hard times make us seize our pleasures when we can and we learn not to postpone them. The grass of May is as glorious as ever but there will be no Wimbledon this year.

Today I am posting part 4 of ‘Three Hours from Spain’:  ‘The Tower of London, a cup of tea and a visit to Dr Johnson’.  Carmen, Ana and Maria continue their programme before coronavirus times.  Even for young students there is nothing more tiring than sightseeing in a foreign city! Still, it is always worth the effort. And they are gathering memories for quieter times later on.