This green and pleasant land.....

This weekend has seen me off on a trip to Cardiff to see friends from uni that I haven't seen for a few years. We've been trying for ages, but the fact I am disappearing soon has meant we have got our acts together and actually done it. And it was great. It was lovely to see Cardiff as the only other time I have been was for two hours and it was tipping it down. But it was fantastic to catch up with four very good and much missed friends.

I decided to go down on the train at the last minute rather than drive - and boy am I glad I did. The weather was gorgeous both there and back - and the scenery was stunning. The train trundled through Shropshire and Herefordshire and into Wales - lovely rolling hillside, old and very impressive trees, rivers and streams, and young lambs playing in the fields. Signs of spring all round, but with the trees still without leaves, which is when they are at their most striking to my mind. The book I had taken to read never even got looked at.

Ok, it wasn't perhaps so pretty when the train got to Newport - but we swapped the green and pleasant land for backyards - nice and nasty - and the opportunity just to be downright nosey!

I'm glad I chose to take the train rather than drive. I got a really good look at the sort of countryside which defines this country, and it felt good to do that before I swap oaks and fields for gum trees and bush.

I didn't even feel 'this is beautiful- I'm really going to miss it', I just felt 'this is beautiful - and I'm really glad I got to see it this way'.

The countryside in Australia is very different, but still has the potential to be beautiful (or at least striking) in its own way. I think I am going to have to find an Oz train to take a long ride on, on a glorious day.

Cheryl x