I'm sure that I must have posted about this before: probably many times.
It occurred to me this morning that yesterday I spoke on the 'phone to friends in Canada, New Zealand (2), England, Scotland, and on the Island. I was Skyped by Jamie in China and passed on a message from Jamie to New Zealand. I received emails from every continent. I read blogs from all over the place but the nature of blogging made the places irrelevant because Blogland encompasses the world (or much of it anyway).
I was born in Liverpool and people from Liverpool ended up all over the world because it was a sea-faring city with links to everywhere. I came to Lewis decades ago and found people who knew countries and places I'd hardly even heard of. In particular many from here went to the Southern Hemisphere on the whalers and I've met a few old-timers who were well acquainted with Napier and many other places in New Zealand. It's pretty much the same today with so many young people going to sea and working on the rigs and oil industry all over the world.
This, however, is just the human element of the small world we inhabit and share with other creatures. The migrations of the Monarch Butterfly and the Godwit almost make our efforts look insignificant by comparison. We use our brains to enable us to make the world smaller and they use their bodies so I suppose they can't really be compared but even so.....
So today I've been relishing the sun and mild weather to clear up the last few outside jobs before I leave for Glasgow and then New Zealand on my annual migration (assisted by the efforts of many thousands, perhaps millions, of brains which created all the means of transport etc that I shall be using to achieve the journey). I feel for those in the South of England who are clearing up after the terrible storm they've just had. Having lived through three hurricanes on the Island where we are adapted for such weather I cannot really imagine how bad it must be in some places which are clear not so adapted.
As a reminder that all days are not as calm and sunny as today this was my garden pond a few days ago:
