I’ve been musing about when I would start my next travel blog, and I feel that this next trip is momentous enough to warrant it. I have kept written journals on occasion, but there is something sweet in supplementing words with images and sharing my insights and experiences with those who might be interested in my sojourns.
This trip is monumental for me in that to some extent, this is the trip I have wanted to take for my whole life. Despite many years of travelling to foreign soils across almost all of the continents, for some inexplicable reason, I have never yet made it to the land of my ancestors.
For someone who counts shows about genealogy as amongst their favourites, and for someone who has been rather an Anglophile since she became a Janeite more than half her life ago; it really is astonishing that this is to be my first visit to the United Kingdom.
It remains a dearly cherished wish to travel in the UK extensively, and to follow literary trails, but that will not be attempted this time (with the exception of some HP-related sites). Ideally there is a lifetime ahead to make that attempt, and this first visit will barely scratch the surface of what I yearn to see.
As preparation for this trip I conducted genealogical research into my matrilineal heritage, and to my pleasure I was able to go several generations further back than I had anticipated, to the 18th century. More on that later. Thanks to other relatives’ extensive research we know the Hick family tree extends back much further to roots in 15th century Cornwall, but that will be a destination for another time.
I’ve also stolen time, where I could, to re-read the Harry Potter series. I don’t think I’ve managed that since 2009, when I read them all in the space of seven days (and did little else besides). It is a testament of how much more diverse and challenging lifeI is at the moment that the goal has taken ten weeks to complete this time. In the midst of the pressures of term two, it has been a joy to re-immerse myself in the Wizarding World and the brilliance that is literary escapism. As I age, it feels harder to escape completely and I have seemed in past years to neglect fantasy or even fictional worlds. This self- enforced immersion has reminded me of my love for literature and reading, and how pleasant it is to read for pleasure rather than for critical analysis. To revisit such beloved characters and ponder the text with greater maturity and the benefit of retrospective insight has been such a treat.
This year has brought its challenges my way, as well as some moments of great achievement. I’m pleased I was able to plan this trip to coincide with one of the best ones. I am deeply hopeful that this years’ new medical concerns won’t hold me back, and I’ll be able to completely immerse myself in these sojourns.
