This weekend Cambridge was a tug of war between May Balls (students cycling about in black tie and ballgowns en route to parties) and a farm fair. We went to the fair and saw a Kiwi shepherd and his dancing sheep. As his bemused sheepdog Misty looked on, the woolly flock mimicked the shepherd’s dance…

We came, we saw, we ate and ate and tomorrow we will be back in Britain. ‘Back to old clothes and porridge,’ as one of my relatives famously said. Our Puglia adventure started 2 years ago when I found this little Trulli online and bookmarked it as a dream home for Laura and I to…

No one rushes about in Puglia.  People amble down the middle of the streets pushing babies and carrying packages holding up all the traffic. Everywhere we go people prioritize food and generosity over clock watching and making money. Our host, Isa, arrived this morning with an elegant tray of cream cakes.  She had offered to take…

   Martina Franca  Lido – Savalletri Olive trees – Ostuni Trulli – Alberobello  

It is nearly 80 degrees.  Yet in every village we pass in Puglia there are tiny little Italian Nonnas (grandmothers) who look like prunes – the sun dried essence of age all dressed in black; black woolen cardigan, skirt and shoes and thick grey stockings, flicking brooms, pegging out washing, peering out of windows (certainly…

Most days it feels as if we might be the only tourists in Puglia. A slightly surreal sensation in the Mediterranean where tourists usually out number the locals at this time of year (late May). When you look at a map of Italy, Puglia is the heel of the boot. It is a knotty hard…

I flew into the UK yesterday into the arms of a truly British welcome; a mixture of kindness, quirkiness and comedy.  I was greeted at Heathrow airport by a pair of stripy men’s underpants whizzing around on the luggage carousel closely followed by 3 pairs of socks and a bag of peanuts.  After running to…

Talking to friends and family in the US through the American border fence the “haves” the “have not”