Summer at last

 Fishing boats hauled up on the beach

For the first time this year, we've had consistently warm weather through the week, with temperatures in the mid-20s during the day, and wonderful fresh nights, with a bit of a breeze.  We went up to London yesterday, to see friends and catch up a little - taking in the Summer Exhibition and the Mexican Exhibition at the Royal Academy plus the Treasures of the Royal Courts exhibition at the V & A, and seeing a friend in a one-woman show about Eleanor Roosevelt last night.  All pretty action-packed, and we came back on the train a little tired and sleepy, then picked the dogs up from their hotel just outside Battle.

We always say the same after returning from a trip: it was lovely to go away, and it's lovely to be back home.  Particularly when the weather is warm and sunny.  But what you notice immediately after London is the quality of the air.  Curiously, on going up to London I'm not so aware of it: but when you get out of the train on the return there's that blessed freshness in the air that you suddenly realise you've missed in the metropolis.  

My reactions to London have been the same for a number of years now: initial delight at the variety and stimulus on all sides, but then, after twenty-four hours, a wish to get away from the noise and dirt and bustle.  Curiously, I remember that in the run-up to our move to France I felt that I was if anything over-stimulated by everything on in London: there's such a richness of cultural delights that you can't absorb it all without risking indigestion.  Certainly some of the major exhibitions need time for reflection afterwards: today we were at the Treasures of the Royal Courts exhibition, which is a slightly odd ragbag of exhibits from the Tudor and early Stuart period, consisting of portraits, artefacts and costumes.  There was some of the most exquisite jewellery I have ever seen, which was a joy.  Astonishing craftsmanship and refinement.  I need time now to mull over the memory of it, let it settle in the mind - not just rush on to the next thing to see.

Antony Mair