Before The Sun Goes Down

 We walk along the river at Exeter Quay this afternoon, a grey sky echoing with the call of gulls and pigeons, swans and black shags, I feel immersed in the holt of an English winter.

 Realise I'm thinking about some other birds which I saw on a UTube film recently - the endangered Kakapo parrot, the flightless Kiwi, the Albatross of New Zealand..... where it's full summer now.....and where we'll be in two weeks time.

 I'm checking off in my mind the piles of clothes I laid out on the bed in the spare room

 this morning,  T-shirts and jeans, tunics and sarongs, a swimming costume and my one and only long summer dress - kingfisher blues - bought in South Africa some moons ago.....and if I only pack one pair of flip flops which ones should they be?

Getting ready to fly away for a month.....to the Land of the Long White Cloud. My husband has always wanted to go to New Zealand......I thought we'd have lots of time, lots of money to travel the world when he stopped working.

 Seems that the time is now....before it's too late......before the sun goes down in his mind.