Tim, as most people who know him will agree, is a lovely man.
 |
| Tim at our favourite restaurant |
My friend MaureenInAustralia, (who, 43 years ago, astonishingly jumped into the car where I was breastfeeding my first baby and told me that although she was nine years older than me we could still be best friends) calls my husband "the-nicest-man-in-the-world". She sends us Christmas cards addressed to "Dearest Anne and Tim-the-nicest-man-in-the-world, ...".
Our four children adore Tim and see him as "the rock", "the voice of reason", "calm in the storm" etc.
I think I am the storm.
One of the traits of a calm man is that he avoids confrontation, and even if drawn into it, remains calm and rational.
I, however, fly into the face of the hurricane, all my swords drawn, dragon-fires blazing. I have been enraged by injustice, cruelty, stupidity my entire life.
 |
| Me and my dragon |
In Lagos we stayed in a ground-floor AirBnB in a large ugly apartment block. It was fairly empty as I think many of the apartments are rented out only in the summer months. I did the washing one day and then carefully pegged it all onto the clothes-horse provided, and put it out on the pavement right in front of our balcony, in the sun. As I was putting the final pegs on, I became aware that the strange shouting going on across the parking lot was an old French man raging at me! "Non! Non! It is forbidden! No washing!"
I was immediately shocked and infuriated. "Mon dieu but why?" So I got Tim to help me lift the entire caboodle back over the wall of the balcony, during which we both managed to get our arms painfully scissored by the stupid clothes-horse.
Next minute Tim was horrified to observe me marching purposefully across the parking lot, previously mentioned swords drawn, dragon-fires blazing.
At the gate there was suddenly a beautiful young Adonis, wearing only a pair of shorts. He greeted me in French and asked if he could help me, and even though I could have spoken his language, I needed my own, my emotional lexicon, for what I had to say! I told him an angry old french man had shouted at me and he said, with a remorseful shrug of his shoulders, "Ah, that is my father."
His cross-faced mother appeared around the balcony wall, and he acted as the go-between, even though we were all speaking English and could all hear one another perfectly.
Me: "I just want to know what difference it will make to your father if I put my clothes out, way across the parking lot, in the sun, for a couple of hours, to dry them?"
Adonis: "She just wants to know why she can't put her washing?"
Cross-faced mother: "Because it is not beautiful! We all live here! It is not beautiful!"
Me: "Really? Have you looked around this ugly apartment block recently?" (I thought it actually)
Adonis: "They live here and it is not beautiful to see your washing."
Me: (speechless)
Adonis: "Have you tried it on the roof?"
Me: (thinking "What?")
 |
| from the rooftop (quite ugly) |
Adonis: "You should have a key for the roof and there is sun there for the washing. I can help you?"
Me: (thinking "Yes, please.") "Ah thanks so much, that is great, I will try that!" Turning away.
Adonis: "Have a beautiful day!"
So the sword-wielding dragon-rider found the solution! Tim and I found the rooftop (I LOVE rooftops, azoteas in Mexico City), with the sun, and a 360° view, and everything turned out alright! (And the washing dried.)
"Have a beautiful day!" Indeed.
And Beauty, like Keats emphasized. It is everywhere here in the natural world.
 |
| Happiness - Bodyboarding at Bordeira |
Yesterday in beautiful tiny Carrapateira, after the best bodyboarding afternoon on Bordeira beach, I walked home over the dunes, which takes me about 45 minutes. Tim pointed out that it should take 10 to 15 minutes but that I stop for every interesting thing, like a little dung beetle doing its important work on the horse manure. (Dung beetles are the only animals known to navigate by the Milky Way! A little beetle navigates by the stars?! Isn't the natural world an incredible treasure?)
 |
| A dung beetle with his prize |
 |
| Little plover on her nest |
Also a Kentish plover I discovered on my ramblings. I suddenly noticed the little rapid-legged runner hurrying off, and so I went and hid just over the dune, and sure enough, she checked very carefully, running hither and thither (yes, lovely archaic words) and eventually doubling back, when she thought it was safe, to her little nest of eggs, a really idiotic depression in the sand. (I guess these birds evolved to do this weird useless kind of nest before there were all these awful human predatory beings to disturb them with their big feet and their clumsy nosy dogs!)
 |
| Little Egret preening |
And a wonderfully relaxed preening Little Egret (which is quite big actually), bright white and shining in the reed-bed, as well as a Grey Heron floating off like a pterodactyl over the marsh in the evening light.
 |
| Little ancient god(dess) |
And to my delight, the other day I noticed this little god with his beautiful crown making his slow way across our front "garden" which is just stones. He had to climb right up the fence too, and I thought he must be a wingless Praying Mantis.
(I have just found out that she is a little goddess and indeed has wings and can fly. I don't know why she spent so long walking and climbing in her wavery fashion. She is a Conehead Mantis and her antennae mark her as female. They are plain and short, not feathery and long like that of the male.)
 |
| Coastal beauty with Tim-the-nicest-man-in-the-world |
I want to live near this coast always. It is magnificent. Wild cliffs, dunes, little bays with perfect waves, deep blue and turquoise ocean. Big sky. Not many people. Perfect.
