Glorious summer

Such a lot has happened since the last post from Miami in April. As the nomads had travelled many miles over the last 18 months we had decided to spend the summer around the UK in what turned out to be an inspired decision. The weather this year was glorious, as some have said: "summer like it used to be".
There is so much to see and do in the British Isles and we took full advantage with short trips to North Wales, Scotland, Jersey and France. The time is usually spent playing golf, hiking and visiting various gardens and homes of The National Trust.
One of the advantages of reaching retirement age (there's a fine line between retirement and unemployment in our case) is that some of our friends are in the same situation and so we have some kindred spirits to 'play' with.
The MacLeods have recently invested in some boat share and kindly invited us to spend a week on their Bavaria 42 in western Greece. Sailing from Lefkas marina we traversed the Ionian Sea stopping in Meganisi, Kalamos and Kastos for the mandatory evening visits to the taverna. The winds were generally light but we did have 2 days of decent wind for sailing but quite frankly whether one is under sail, swimming or testing the retsina, who cares? It's all good fun.


Kastos Harbour

It is the year for 60th birthdays in our family and we took the opportunity to visit Ashley in Jersey for 3 days in mid August to celebrate mine. Astra came over from Bermuda and we enjoyed fantastic sunshine, golf and sightseeing together.

Having already walked in Snowdonia and played golf in North Wales with The Cooksons we embarked on a longer expedition to Western Scotland. We drove north to take the ferry from Ardrossan to Campbeltown (Machrihanish)and on to Isla (The Machrie) then back to Arran (Shiskine) mixing golf and walking. The itinerary had to be altered somewhat so the 60 knot winds would not affect the sailings but golf days were calm, the scenery is spectacular.
The ferry to Isla.



We returned to Bermuda in October and were again fortunate to be able to spend time with both of our daughters for two weeks. Astra is still working in insurance and Ashley took a break from cooking to have a well earned holiday. There are many friends to catch up with and we managed to see them all, play some golf and celebrate Ashley's birthday. In fact it was a dual celebration because on the same day the results of my checkup came back and it appears that I am cancer free. My thanks to everyone for the concern and support shown over the last few months and in particular the love from my three ladies,I sometimes think it was worse for them than for me.
So far it has been an extraordinary year but it's not over yet.
Tomorrow night we leave for India and Bhutan via Dubai from where we will try to keep you updated. October is our favourite month in Bermuda, here's one reason why: