While it can be inspiring to see photos of beautiful beaches, sun-filled seas and magnificent mountains on social media, it can be disappointing if you can’t go on holiday yourself. Because our summer has been spent decorating after a massive under-floor leak, we have not been able to get away but fortunately it is possible to go on holiday without actually leaving the house. All you have to do is to remember a previous holiday, trawl through the computer for pictures and information on far-away places or just use your imagination.
So I decided to revisit some previous travels and trust that my brain wouldn’t know the difference between something remembered and something real.
My first destination was to the mountains and a stay in a fisherman’s cottage high up in the Norwegian Arctic Circle at midsummer when the midnight sun poured over the mountains and fjords like liquid gold turning to aquamarine…
Then I took myself back to witnessing the Northern Lights in Canada – a very different type of magic which is just as haunting and utterly spectacular…
…where the lakes are painted in blues and greens more translucent than any jewel…
Then there was the desert which, at first view seemed desolate and barren but after a week became strangely compelling as the sun dripped down the rocks like dark chocolate icing furrowing down the sides of a cake…
Finally I thought back to a forest…
…where, once, I met a bear. My friend and I were sleeping outside Yosemite National Park in North America. Waking in the middle of the night, I looked up to see an enormous black bear standing on its hind legs looking straight at us from only six metres away…
On our travels we had heard about bear attacks and learned that when confronted by an aggressive bear you must either play dead or make a lot of noise. Usually I have a powerful voice – after all I was singing my way around America – but fear robs you of any ability to make a sound and so we ran for the bike. Unbelievably, it refused to start. Terrified, we banged together some saucepans and at last the animal dropped to all fours and moved away.
At that moment, I admit that was relieved only to be remembering rather than actually experiencing. However, my brain did think that the imagined was real and I do feel strangely refreshed although the scents of mountain flowers, lake water, desert sand and forest trees have been somewhat overtaken by the smell of drying concrete, walls and fresh paint…
Hoping that you have had, or are about to have a wonderful holiday whether it is in body, memory or imagination…
Happy September!
Love Laurelle
