Mrs Mabbsonsea recently had a Significant Birthday, so a couple of weeks before Easter, we went to Venice. What a fantastic place! As Mrs M would tell you, I had resisted going there for 22 years. Silly me. I wouldn’t mind going again, actually. Here are some photos:
A canal (um….)
Doge’s Palace with San Marco behind
Grand Canal at sunset, with Santa Maria della Salute in the background.
Mrs M sipping my drink in the piazza in Burano
We came back to freezing cold England. I know we’re to blame for the bad weather due to all the carbon emissions we caused by flying to Venice. But here we are in April, and it’s still snowing. I have seed potatoes chitting in the shed and seeds waiting to be sown, and I can’t do anything in the garden other than a bit of pruning.
The gardening advice on the radio the other day was to hope. The man said don’t be impatient – the best thing to do is to hope. The interviewer said we should all hope together, which sounds like quite a good idea in general. I have a motto on a Greenpeace shirt that says “The optimism of the action is better than the pessimism of the thought”. Everyone acting in hope might get us somewhere. Last Saturday, the environment editor of The Independent, Michael McCarthy, wrote a valedictory column on his retirement. While he struck a pessimistic note, he said that his pessimism was not unmitigated, because of the many green campaigners who have fought hard to save the Earth. He calls them the redeemers of humankind. That may be going too far, but we do have to hope together in practical action … like not flying to Venice. Next time, I promise I will go by train.
Alex Mabbs 
Lucky you and good for the Mrs for not giving up. Some day I might get to Venice but there are at least a hundred stops along the way. Peace and happy memories of a nice vacation.
Thanks for stopping by. It really was a nice vacation. But as you say, there are so many stopping places. So much beauty, history and generally interesting bits on this planet.