The world from my window

There is only so much miserable weather I can take during our enforced stay in Jura on our Beetle drive to Corfu. Still, if we're here for the Juration , while we wait for the dynamo and regulator to be fitted to the old VW by a Renault garage where they speak very little English, there is always wine, history, natural splendour and food. There's a bit of writing to be done, and catching up on admin. And the good news is that the weather is bad, too, in The Enchanted Village. And then there are always books. And what a diverse collection. I have just read The Curse of Brink's Mat , the inside story of the 20th century's most lucrative armed robbery, and loaned to me by ex-detective Nobby Odd-Job. Then it was over to the charming The  Cat of Portovecchio by my friend, Maria Strani-Potts (highly recommended if you want to immerse yourself in a Corfu fishing village in the 1950s), and I've just downloaded School Ties , a novella by...

Tonight, a big old Dyad Moon is suspended low in the sky. It is a deep rusty orange, with wisps of clouds like chiffon around its neck. It is nearly midnight in The Enchanted Village and there is a constant, low hum - the sound of British motorbikes trundling through on a late night Whitsun bank holiday rally. Down the road, the lane to Bluebill Hill is strewn with homemade patchwork bunting, hung between the lilac trees, May blossom hedges and Narnia lamp posts. Tomorrow, there is to be a village wedding and a sneak preview of the marriage venue promises something akin to when Jane Austen met Thomas Hardy. And still the British bikes hum through the Enchanted Village, as the wedding guests snuggle down into unfamilar beds and the bride tries to get to sleep after a Baileys or two, remembering that this time tomorow she will have a completely different name. And 350 years ago tomorrow, on Oak Apple Day, King Charles II was restored to the English throne. An auspicious date for a weddin...