Travels, was Re: [leps-talk] St. Pierre d'Entremont - March 24

[Anne Kilmer]

Antony Moore wrote:

snip

what a wonderful piece of writing, and how I envy you your 
four-year-old. My children and grandchildren are far too old to give me 
such sweet satisfaction, except for Emily, who, at one, will make her 
first visit to the Irish house with her entourage.

One is a bit young for fossil hunting, though I know a place in Donegal 
where a felon with a butterknife can collect lovely ancient shells, all 
laminated together.

Perhaps the sun will shine this summer, and we will have a good crop of 
butterflies to show her. There should, at least, be a fine bunch of 
Peacock caterpillars on the nettles.

For my part, I will be on the Celebrity Millennium next Sunday, April 
27, with my sweet patootie, and stop briefly at Funchal May 5; Lisbon 
the 7th, Gibraltar the 8th, Malaga the 9th, arriving in Barcelona the 
11th. Last time, all I saw was a couple of cabbage whites, but being 
lugged about in a tourist bus is probably not the best way to examine 
wildlife.

If you explore on your own, and don't make it back in time, the boat 
leaves without you, taking along your luggage, laptop and passport. This 
has never appealed to me. I keep wishing I were more adventurous, but 
perhaps I should have thought of this earlier, and led a more healthful 
and vigorous life.

I am going to remain offline until I arrive at the Irish house May 16, 
and if the world comes to an end, I'll have to find out then.

Yes, I can imagine SARS on a cruise ship, and the ship parked offshore 
while we all either die or get well. I can also imagine two weeks of not 
reading A Nation at War every day, in the New York Times and the Palm 
Beach Post, and a glorious summer of no newspapers at all.
We get Euronews in the early mornings, in Ireland,  nicely balanced and 
much pleasanter than CNN, and I don't have to watch it if I don't want to.

I instructed the nasturtiums last summer to be fruitful and multiply and 
fill the world, and perhaps they will have done so. It was amazing to 
see how much the clematis enjoyed the company of a nasturtium on its 
trellis. They bloomed and bloomed in happy chorus.

It's John's turn for the back garden, so the brambles and nettles will 
be kept scythed. Plenty of fresh growth for the caterpillars, and 
perhaps all the buddleja I planted last year will have thrived and 
rooted nicely among the nettles of the compost heap.

It naturalizes in Ireland and is a pernicious weed, and God will just 
have to forgive me.

Sophy, the pine marten, will have wintered comfortably in the kitchen 
roof. I hope that this year she will not have redecorated the house, and 
that our repairs have also kept the mice out.
She was a pretty good houseguest, using the boxroom as her latrine, and 
leaving only one dropping at the threshold of our bedroom, Kilroy was 
Here. But, between her and the mice, a mess was made.

This is the year to take a cruise, if you're not scared. Prices have 
never been so low, and they make you quite comfortable. Transatlantic 
cruises are really pretty cheap; about half what a normal cruise will 
cost, and this year, what with one thing and another, they're going 
begging. They want the rooms filled, because that pays the waiters, 
stewards etc. and the boat has to go anyway, full or empty.

When I return in the fall, I hope to find a place in the local butterfly 
projects. By then I am sure we will have settled our differences with 
NABA and everyone will be getting along splendidly.

I will also have lost 75 pounds and will be running five miles every 
evening. I will no longer enjoy chocolate and cheese, and my bent for 
sarcasm will have straightened itself out.

Cheers
Anne Kilmer
South Florida



 
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